Death in the Dorms (2023–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Samantha Josephson - full transcript

They say
time heals all things...

But I think that's bullshit.

I think you just learn how to...

Adapt.

To go on.

I don't think any of us,

as much as you expect
the worst to happen,

you also don't expect it.

It's still
the most shocking thing

when you actually hear it.

Everybody I did know,



it felt like it hit them
in some way.

She was one of us, so to speak,

one of us...
One of us Gamecocks.

The murder of a college
student in South Carolina.

I will never forget
Miss Josephson

when they told her the news.

I'll remember that
for the rest of my life.

I have.

Absolutely.

We think we have
a safe city here,

but this might happen again.

It's just really scary to
think that, like,

that can happen to anyone.

My husband, Seymour and I
met I was in college



and he was working
at the supermarket,

and I used to
go through his lane

because I thought he was cute.

And I invited him to a party,

and he did not show up.

But then, two years later,

someone introduced us
and we went out,

and, um, we were driving past
the supermarket and he said,

"Oh, I used to work there."

So then we knew
that he was the one

who... whose lane
I used to go through.

Samantha was born
August 13th, 1997.

I just remember Sydney
kept calling her baby.

She wouldn't call her Sam
for the longest time.

Sami was younger than me,
she was 20 months younger

than me, even though I was...
For the most part,

would refer to her
as two years younger,

she would always correct me
and say that we were not

two years apart,

so we were one year in school.

She was always silly, goofy,

the life of the party,
would like to make people smile.

She was a really good person,

cared deeply about the people
that she cared about,

would do anything for them.

Syd was always put
together, kind of like,

if we were playing house,
Syd would be the mom character.

Sami would be the rambunctious,
kind of out of line

younger sibling that you had.

But, like, you always could go
and look at Sami

and you knew that she was up to
no good,

but you would have fun doing it.

Samantha was a little bit
a mix of everything.

She was very sensitive,

but she was also, like,
wanted to be the class clown.

Growing up, Sami wanted to do
so many different things.

At one point,
she was really into makeup.

She wanted to be
a makeup artist.

She would always do my makeup.

But she eventually grew into
wanting to be a lawyer.

I think Sami wanted
to go to law school

because she wanted to change
the world a little bit.

You always knew that
she wanted to help people,

whether it be help people
throughout the day

or help people
throughout their life.

She always had that ambition.

So when we were looking
for colleges,

because the girls were only
one year apart in school,

we went to the University
of South Carolina with Sydney.

So Sami came and we wanted her
to also, you know, take it in.

We all flew down.

My family loved the school,
Sami especially.

I didn't end up going there
for different reasons,

but Sami then decided,
after that trip,

that she really wanted
to go there.

And she got in, obviously,

and she had her mind made up.

That's where she was going.

I'm Timothy Boddie,
I go by T. Michael Boddie.

I was one of two managing
editors of the student newspaper

at the University
of South Carolina.

It's called The Daily Gamecock.

♫ Gotta say ♫

♫ I been great,
got no complaints ♫

♫ I'mma zen-zen namaste ♫

If you were to Google
the university,

I'm sure the Wikipedia page
would say "campus... urban."

It's an urban campus
in the sense that

it is pretty well
integrated into the city...

You know, restaurants, shops,
that kind of thing.

You'll hit them
without realizing

that you're off of the campus.

The campus, even though
it is in the middle of a city,

does have a very campus-y
vibe to it,

where there is grass and trees

and areas for you to sit.

It was a big sports culture,
really big Greek life culture.

I mean, I don't remember the
exact percentage of the students

that were in fraternities
and sororities,

but it was... it was a lot.

We actually dropped her
off on her 18th birthday,

was her first day at college.

She really acclimated to
the school

and she enjoyed it.

Having Samantha be
in South Carolina

and being so far from home...

It's a 12-hour drive
or a flight.

It was difficult in the sense
of letting go,

'cause God forbid,
if anything happens.

But you just hope that
you did enough

and you did things right.

I remember for parents' weekend,

we went to a football game,
which was a lot of fun.

She seemed very at-home,

and like she knew
everything about it.

So she was excited
to show all of us.

Samantha joined the
sorority Alpha Gamma Delta,

and made a lot of nice friends,

had a lot of connections.

She became close
with this one guy, Greg,

who, then, they started
dating at some point.

I know that they were friendly
for some time

before they started dating.

She was happy with Greg.

He was, as far as I know,
happy with her.

They were in a good spot.

Samantha really didn't want
her senior year to end.

She loved it so much that
University of South Carolina.

But she knew she was
getting ready for law school.

So, Samantha had applied
to Rutgers,

and that was really where
she wanted to go to law school.

She also applied at Drexel
in Philadelphia.

At Drexel, she had
a full scholarship;

At Rutgers,
she had a scholarship,

but it was not
a full scholarship.

So she decided to go to Drexel.

They flew her up
for student acceptance day.

Then we went to a winery,
Marci, Sydney and I,

and Samantha.

It was just really nice.

That was the last time
that we were all together.

She went back to University
of South Carolina

that Monday morning.

Sami had about a month left
until graduation,

a little bit more...
That's the kind of time

where everybody is really taking
in the last parts of college,

being with your friends that you
don't know the next time

you're going to be
that close to, if ever.

So it's just a happy time,
a celebration.

The way that
the university is situated,

situated at the top of a hill
that leads down

into a very popular bar district

called Five Points.

And that is where a lot of kids
would go every night.

Sami was just the life
of the party.

You'd always be having
the best time

whenever you were with Sami.

She brought that joy to life.

That Thursday night...

She called me to ask me
if she could use my credit card

for the Uber
because hers somehow,

someway never worked,
so she always used mine.

Samantha went out
with her friends that night.

They typically went out
on Thursday nights.

Samantha Josephson
and her friends,

they were out here at this bar
called The Bird Dog.

And that was the last time...

we had any type
of communication.

A disturbing mystery out
of South Carolina...

The horror that college
senior...

- And a community rocked...
- What happened?

Josephson never came home.

It was March 29, 2019.

I was having lunch with
my friends and my phone rang

and I saw that it was Greg,

and he said to me,
"Marci, we can't find Sami."

And I said, what do you mean
you can't find her?

And he said that he was at home
with his parents in Charleston.

He said that her roommates
couldn't find her,

she didn't come home that night.

And I just kind of froze.

And he told me he was going
to leave to go to Columbia

to help his friends
track down Sami.

I get a phone call
from Marci saying,

"Have you spoken to Greg?"

I said, "No."

She goes, "Sami's missing."

I'm like, "Wh-what?"

She goes, "He called me
and told me that

Sami's missing, she never came
home last night."

I said, "Get home,
we're going down."

She goes, "What do you mean?"
I go, "Get home now,

We're going down.
We're driving down."

My dad called me
and I answered him,

and he very sternly told me
that I needed to come home now.

And I asked him why.

And he said something
with Sami, she's missing.

And I was like,
"Oh, she's probably like...

Her phone's dead,
she's fine."

He's like, "No, you need to come
home," so I did.

Marci then got home.

We threw stuff in a bag
and we just...

Sydney, I said, "Stay here.
Watch the dog.

Hopefully we should be back,
we'll be back this weekend."

Before we left, I had called
one of Samantha's roommates,

Carly, to find out
what was going on.

And she said that
"We've called the police."

On March 29th, 2019,

I received a call from
my captain at the time

that said we had a call out

to assist
Columbia Police Department.

I am a lieutenant in the
Midlands Investigative Unit

with the South Carolina
Law Enforcement Division.

We're here to assist
with, whether it be manpower

or technical assistance.

And within the Midlands unit,

we have ten counties
that we assist.

Several agents were called out
from SLED to assist,

along with several Columbia PD
investigators.

And we were tasked
with interviewing the roommates

of Samantha Josephson.

The friends had told us that,
the night that this occurred,

there were multiple friends
that would be graduating,

and at this point,
they just want to go out

and have a good time.

They all go
to Five Points together.

They go to The Bird Dog.

Samantha decides she's ready
to go home around 2:00 a.m.

on the morning of the 29th,

and she contacts an Uber.

Her friends,
they think she's taken the Uber,

so they return home; When they
return to the apartment,

Samantha is not there.

At this point,
they also have a system

where they all would keep up
with one another

and track one another
through apps on their phone.

So at this point,
they're looking for her

through the apps.

Greg's looking for her
through the apps.

And it shows her phone
went into the Rosewood area.

And the phone stopped.

And at this point, we've learned

that she'd never
got into the Uber.

It was canceled due to her
not being at the location,

according to the Uber driver.

So now we're trying to figure
out where Samantha,

where has she been,
where did she go.

♫ I keep my hopes up ♫

♫ I'm walking the streets
over the bodies ♫

I was just kind of like waiting

to hear that she was okay.

I remember playing
with my dog outside,

and one of my neighbors
came over after work

and just kind of, like, strongly
suggested that I come over.

So basically told me, like,
I needed to come over...

Their house...

And that I was going
to have dinner with them.

We were all posting on social
media, like, begging for help

or if anybody had
any information.

♫ I keep my hopes up ♫

♫ And I'm turning to stone ♫

I remember being at the desk

in one of the residence halls

and learning
that Sami had gone missing.

Everybody I did know, it felt
like it hit them in some way.

Even if we didn't know her, she
was one of us, so to speak...

One of us...
One of us Gamecocks.

It was one of those things
where it's so outside the realm

of what you would be thinking
about at any moment,

that it would take a minute
to really process it.

I was at work when
I found out about Sami.

I was going through my phone
and started to see

all of the posts on Instagram,
actually, of, you know,

"Samantha's missing,
what's going on?"

And I ran out of the meeting

and I called my mom immediately.

I was like, "Is this true?
What's going on?"

And she's like,
"Yeah, this is true.

Seymour and Marci
are on their way down to

South Carolina right now,

and you should come home
from work."

The drive down was pretty quiet.

You just want to get down there
as quick as possible.

And I'm driving fast...
I'm driving 85 miles an hour,

90 miles an hour down there.

You know, when you're talking
to the police on the way down,

"What time's your ETA?
What time's your ETA?"

And I'm like, "All right,
do you have..."

I'll be down there whenever,"
and asking about updates

and speaking to the police
about, "Do you have any updates?

Have you found or have you...
Do you have any leads?"

Detective Odom of
the Columbia Police Department,

she was my main contact
for the day,

and I remember her,
for the second time, going,

"What's your ETA?"

And I'm like,

"It's saying 12:00"...
Whatever it was.

She goes, "Okay, just come right
to the, you know,

when you get into Colombia,

just come right into
the police department."

I'm like, "Okay,"

and I hung up the phone,

and I remember
looking out to my left,

away from Marci, and I go.

"This is not going to end well."

I just got an empty feeling,

an empty wave over me,

that I knew...

That...

Something was bad.

I'm Special Agent Lee Blackmon

with the South Carolina
Law Enforcement Division

in the Midlands Investigative
section of SLED.

On the afternoon of March 29,

I was actually out
at the movies with my family,

and I actually saw media reports
that there was a young lady,

a student from the University
of South Carolina,

that was missing
from Five Points.

The Columbia Police Department
had already notified

the officers on patrol

and not just within Columbia,
Richland County,

the surrounding counties
had been notified.

And on our way home
from the movies,

I received a call that a body
had been discovered

in Clarendon County.

Clarendon County
Sheriff's Office

received a call
from two gentlemen

that were out turkey hunting.

They had went to a field kind of
in a remote location

to, like, scout for turkeys.

While they were down there,

they located a deceased female

in a wooded area.

I was told that
the manner in which the body

had been found and the injuries
that the body had,

that this was
a horrendous situation

and that the victim
had been brutally murdered.

Columbia PD had put out a BOLO
for Samantha

as a missing person.

Based on her
physical description

and her clothing description,

they believed it to be Samantha
at that point.

When I was called out,
I responded

to a Columbia Police Department
annex,

which is near
Williams-Brice Stadium,

which is the University
of South Carolina

football team's stadium,
and that's where I first learned

that there were friends
of Samantha

that were there that needed
to be interviewed,

including her boyfriend,
and that her parents

were on the way
to that facility as well.

When we got to
the police station,

they took us into a room.

There were a lot of people
in the room.

And they were
introducing us to people.

And the first thing I saw was,

there was a man with a jacket,

and on the jacket,
it said "Coroner."

And I just put my head down.

And I just grabbed on to Marci.

And then they told us.

They said that they think
they found Sami.

They weren't 100% sure.

But she matched the description
of what she was wearing.

And, um...

We just broke down.

I remember slamming the table.

Hitting a wall.

Um...

Marci breaking down.

I remember my neighbor Jodi
answering the phone.

My dad had called her, and she
just, like, drops to the ground.

And just starts crying.

And I just remember, like,
grabbing the phone from her

because I needed
to hear it myself.

I needed to hear my dad.

And I could hear my mom
in the background

just crying.

And I don't even remember
exactly what my dad said,

but he... I think he said
something that, like,

that she was gone, and I just
remember, like, totally losing,

I couldn't breathe.

That was the hardest call,

one of the hardest things
I had to do ever.

The fact that Sydney
wasn't with us,

I don't know
if it was good or bad,

but, you know, I would have
liked to have hugged her

and held her at that time.

Marci and I went into autopilot.

At least I did.

I just wanted to, um,

find the guy.

I was a senior
when this happened,

and the word did spread
really, really fast.

One day you're with
your friend and the next day

you may never see them again.

And it's kind of
a morbid thought,

but it does happen, and, um,

sadly happened here.

This hurts, whether you
knew the person or not,

because it was just so awful,
what happened.

We hang out at Five Points,
like, every weekend.

- So it's scary.
- We were around the area.

Could have been any of us.

You'll spend some time
going, "No, no, no.

That didn't happen.
No way."

Before it really hits you
that it did happen.

When I arrived at the annex

and started my part
of the investigation,

the Columbia Police Department
had already recovered the video

from The Bird Dog lounge.

And it showed Samantha Josephson
outside.

On the video, you see Samantha,

she's standing on
what I would consider

the island of the sidewalk
in front of The Bird Dog.

And when she's standing there,

it's apparent she's looking
for someone to pick her up.

We know that she had requested,
through an app, her Uber.

It was canceled due to her
not being at the location,

according to the Uber driver.

And at that point, we're able
to see a black Chevrolet Impala

come out of the side parking lot
next to The Bird Dog.

It showed her getting inside

the dark colored Impala,

and it was not an Uber vehicle.

On the video,
you cannot see a license plate.

So at this point,
we started gathering more video

from the downtown area.

Watching the videos,
you can see her

getting into the vehicle.

And we could watch it
leave Five Points

and leave that area
with her inside the vehicle.

We know at this point
that we're looking for

a black Chevy Impala.

Columbia PD puts out a BOLO
to all of their units,

as well as all
the surrounding agencies

to be on the lookout
for this black Chevrolet Impala.

We knew that we were
looking, in a sense,

for a needle in a haystack.

We flew down to South Carolina,

drove to meet up
with my parents,

and then, pretty quickly,
were involved with just talking

with the cops
and everyone there,

and...

we all just kind of waited
for answers from the cops.

After we had
interviewed the friends,

and after we had spoken
with Samantha's parents,

I actually stepped outside
to take a break

to... to kind of get
my thoughts together

on where I thought
we needed to go next.

What would be important
for us to do next?

I said a short prayer, I said,

"God, please,
please give us a lead.

Please help us find
some information

to move
this investigation along,"

because there was a fear already
when a case like this starts

that you may not solve it.

You might not find the person
who who did this.

And I remember walking back in
the door, and as soon as I did,

one of the Columbia PD
investigators said,

"We got to get to Five Points,

one of our officers just stopped
a dark-colored Impala."

That God had already answered
my prayer before I prayed it.

[]

Alright, here's the deal, man.

Mm-hmm.

I pulled your car over 'cause
it matches the suspect...

Get your hand
out of your pocket.

And the driver took off and ran.

Hey, get over here!

Got one running!

Bravo, Mike, wearing gray
sweatpants, gray sweatshirt.

Nunes, keep going.
He's gon' be on your left.

I got 'im.

They caught 'im and went back to
the car,

and there appears to be blood
in the back seat.

Of course, that gets
everybody's attention

at that point... it's well more
than a traffic stop.

Blood on the seat.

There's blood
on the driver's seat too.

Where's your ID?
What's your name?

You don't have ID?

We first arrived where the car
had been stopped at.

We talked to the officers
who had been part

of the car stop, and they had
found a phone.

The phone matched the
description of Samantha's phone.

Look at this...
Girl iPhone.

We looked in the back seat,
and you could see

what appeared to be blood.

Look at the back of the seat.

There's blood
all over there, man.

Yeah, someone was...
Something happened.

He was not telling us
who he was.

He was not identifying himself.

We had already started
the process of taking pictures

and doing facial recognition
to see

if we could determine
who he was.

He's determined to be
Nathaniel Rowland.

He was 24 years old
and he lives in South Carolina.

We were on scene
talking to those officers

who had stopped the vehicle

when I got word
that Nathaniel Rowland

wanted to speak
to an investigator.

At that point, there have been
some narcotics

found inside the vehicle.

And of course,
plus with the blood

and the other things in there.

He gave an explanation
that he had been

partying the night before

in some apartment complexes
near the university,

and that he was
in the apartment,

had been drinking too much.

And when he went outside
to try to find his car

in the parking lot, it was not
located in the place

where he had parked.

And when he did find his car,
he opened the door

and looked down,
and there was blood inside.

At that time, we knew that
Samantha had been murdered.

And we're looking at a person
that, all of a sudden,

he's on our radar now

and we want to find out
more about him.

And we asked him if he would
wish to talk further with us.

And we had him transported
to the Columbia PD annex

that we were working out of.

He was still sort of
passive in his answers to us.

He simply just refused to have
any more conversations

with us at that point.

You don't just get tunnel vision
and think,

"Well, we got our man here."

We have to look at him...

Of course,
he's in our picture now.

We have to find out
where he's been.

Do our due diligence to look,
to see, hey, is he involved

or is he not involved?

We knew at that point that
we had a big piece of evidence,

and that big piece
of evidence was his vehicle.

We also had a phone that we
believed was

Samantha Josephson's phone.

He also had phones
on his person.

And we knew that we needed
to get the ball rolling as soon

as we could
to start processing the phones

and processing that vehicle.

At this point, I was
with our crime scene agents,

and they go to do
a thorough search

based on the search warrant
for the black Chevrolet Impala.

We're able to see a lot more
clearly into the vehicle.

It appears that the child locks
were engaged in the vehicle.

And once Samantha stepped
in the back seat

of that vehicle,
she couldn't escape.

And there is tons of blood.

I have never seen that much
blood in any crime scene

that I've ever been on
in my 26 years.

We actually had some
of our SLED lab workers

come in immediately
to the office

in the wee hours of the morning
to start, as we call it,

spinning the DNA to get
a DNA profile from the blood

that was found
inside the vehicle.

Our lab was able to turn
it around and determine

that the blood
located in the vehicle

was that of Samantha Josephson.

At this point I know that
everything we're doing now

and everything we're about to do
is for Samantha,

is to make sure
that we get justice for Samantha

and for Samantha's family.

I remember being at
the Soda City Market,

which is a little market
on Main Street

in downtown Columbia,

on Saturday morning,
March the 30th.

I was there with my family.

We were walking around
enjoying a beautiful day

when I got
a call late that morning

from the Columbia
Police Department telling me,

Hey, we have something
pretty serious here

and we need to talk
to you about it.

That Saturday morning,
I was actually headed

out of town with my daughter,
headed to a softball tournament,

and I got a call from my
deputy solicitor, Dan Goldberg,

and he at that point
began to inform me

that there's
a person of interest.

At this point, agents from the
Columbia Police Department

and the South Carolina
Law Enforcement Division

are working together
and independently.

They started to kind of
confiscate as much information

as they could about cell phone
records and cameras.

So in this case,

investigators
knew they had to take a look

at both Samantha's phone
and Mr. Rowland's phone.

And what they discovered
was that both his phone

and her phone tracked
to the same path

to the point that
Ms. Josephson's phone

turned off.

But more importantly, a look at
Mr. Rowland's phone records

showed his phone traveling out
of Columbia,

up Highway 378,

to just a short distance away
from where Samantha was found.

In South Carolina,
we as the prosecutors,

we as the solicitors,
we stay in an advisory role.

We don't put out the warrant.

Law enforcement will actually
do the investigation.

They may... they will consult
with us about,

you know,
maybe elements of the crime

and just different things
that need to be done.

But ultimately, it's their
decision to make the arrest.

They made the warrants
and the arrest

when they were comfortable
that they had probable cause

that Nathaniel Rowland
had murdered Samantha Josephson

and kidnapped Samantha
Josephson.

24 year old Nathaniel
David Rowland has been arrested.

And the charges at this
point are murder

with malice aforethought...

The most serious murder there
is under South Carolina law...

As well as kidnapping.

We believe she simply
mistakenly got into

this particular car thinking it
was an Uber ride.

The Columbia Police
Department chief

came and gave us an update.

And they basically told
us that they had found someone

that they suspected
was her killer,

and that they had gotten him,
basically.

We were relieved
that they caught him.

But I have to say,
it still didn't feel real.

You know, I guess I still kind
of wait for her to come home.

I could tell that it was tough

on the reporters under me
at the student paper,

but I needed them
because this was a team effort.

If I was somewhere, like,
tied up

at a desk in a residence hall,

I would have needed
somebody else to

call this person for me,

get the get a police report
for me,

go and attend the vigil
that these students

and Sami's parents are having.

Wow. It's amazing to see
everybody out here.

The Gamecocks, USC,
your people...

How you guys have come together,
how you pulled this together.

♫ Under this roof,
we gather to let you go ♫

We first met Sami
during our freshman year

when we all pledged Alpha Gam.

There will never be another soul
like Sami Josephson.

♫ You brought us back together ♫

♫ One last chance
to steal the show ♫

She embodied the phrase
"Work hard, play hard."

We often called her
the next Amal Clooney

because we knew how far
she would go

in the field
of international law.

I look at all of you guys
and I see

that even in the short time
that she was here,

how many people she positively
impacted with her energy

and the positive attitude.

♫ I hope we see you
in our dreams tonight ♫

♫ Where you can
make us laugh again ♫

So at this point,
Nathaniel's been charged.

But the way we look at it,
this is just the beginning

of our investigation.

We have more items
that we need to follow up.

One thing that was occurring
initially was the autopsy.

Initially, we were told
that they believe Samantha

had suffered approximately
40-plus stab wounds.

Once the autopsy is conducted,

we're told it was well over
100 stab wounds.

These wounds were
very specific wounds.

It was almost as if there was
two points to the knife,

and it's almost as if
they crossed over one another.

And it was due to the type
of item that was used.

We were kind of told
that it was not normal.

It was not just a plain knife.

It was... it was something
that should match

to the wounds on Samantha,
if we could find it.

It was important to us
as the prosecutors on the case

to establish a relationship
with the Josephson family.

And I can recall on the day
that they were leaving Columbia

to go back to New Jersey,

Mr. Rowland
had already been arrested,

the investigation
was still ongoing,

myself and our team
went to their hotel

early that morning...
Before 8:00 a.m...

To catch them
and introduce ourselves

before they left town.

I remember telling
them, this is what I want,

I want the death penalty.

I want him to fry.

So I remember saying...
Means nothing,

but I remember saying it.

But the whole group met
with the solicitors.

After, I remember my one cousin
was like,

"We need to start planning
the funeral, Seymour.

We really need
to start doing this.

We need to...
We need to get this done."

And I didn't want to because...

Who the hell wants to...

Who the hell wants
to bury their baby?

You're supposed to
die before them.

Right?
So, who wants to do that?

This morning, the man
accused of kidnapping

and killing a University
of South Carolina senior

- is behind bars.
- It's just really scary

to think that, like,
that can happen to anyone.

Today on campus,
some students saying

- they'll continue to be vigilant.
- I'm definitely

going to be checking,
like, who's my Uber driver,

checking the license plates,
all that stuff.

I been tellin' all
my friends that.

I'm definitely going to check
the car plates,

like, the car plate number,

and not... I'm not calling
an Uber alone.

Investigators still had
challenges in front of them

in that they found Samantha,

they knew how she died,

and the Impala appears to be
where she was killed,

but there wasn't anything yet
that put Nathaniel Rowland

inside the vehicle at the time
that Samantha was killed.

So investigators
were challenged with gathering

as much evidence as they could
that could be pieced together

to show that he had
to be the one in the car.

When Nathaniel's vehicle
was first searched,

there were several documents
that were located

inside the vehicle.

One was an eviction notice.

And it had the name Maria on it

with a Mountain Brook address,
which was in Colombia.

And we knew
that that was important

because that could be a person

who was an associate
or somebody who knew Nathaniel.

So on the afternoon
of April 3rd,

myself and an investigator with
the Columbia Police Department

went to that address
on Mountain Brook.

I knocked on the door and a lady
came to the door

and she told me
that she was Maria.

I introduced myself.

And she agreed to come
and talk with us.

We took her back to the Columbia
Police Department annex

and sat down
and had an interview with her.

Maria tells us she does know
Nathaniel,

that they're
somewhat of an item.

On the morning of the 29th,

she had to be at work
at a certain time

and her ride to work
was going to be Nathaniel.

He arrived late and she was
going to be late for work.

She sees something
and thinks it's blood.

She sees him again
that afternoon at her residence.

What we learned is that
Nathaniel started

cleaning his car out at Maria's.

She saw him cleaning
those things at her residence

and he was disposing
of those things in trash cans

at her residence.

We found all kind of
cleaning supplies.

And bloody sheets.

Bloody towels.

Bloody gloves.

And eventually
a multipurpose tool

that had hair on it,
had blood on it.

The information that came
from the autopsy,

we knew we were looking
for a unique type of weapon,

one that had two blades on it.

And it when we found the weapon
that we found

at Maria's house...

We knew that we had found
the weapon,

no doubt that had caused
those injuries.

It was proven forensically
to be so.

At this point, it's like
we're... we're checking boxes.

Every time we find one thing,
we find another thing.

Our analysts that were
studying Samantha's phone

saw where it was powered on

at a business that buys
and sells used cell phones.

And they marked that as a place
of interest

that we needed to go...
Go check out.

I went there and spoke
to the store manager

who was actually able
to pull up video.

And we see Nathaniel Rowland
enter into that store

with Samantha Josephson's phone
in his hand.

He passes it over the counter

i-in an attempt to...
To sell the phone.

We're able to see Nathaniel
in that 2017 Black Impala,

you know,
pulling up to the place.

We're able to see a sheet
that has blood marks on it

inside of the car.

That matches up with something
Maria said.

When you start putting
all of these pieces together,

they put the puzzle
together perfectly

so that we know we've got
the person who did this thing.

We're going to do everything
possible to make sure

that he spent the rest
of his life behind bars.

Our team knew what was at stake
going into this trial.

The trial, I dreaded.

Because of COVID, it was put off

because the courts
were not open.

I was very, very nervous
prior to going

because I didn't know
what to expect.

I was afraid of hearing things
that I didn't want to hear.

It was really long
and stressful and tiring

and just draining,

having to relive everything.

She was dragged into
the woods and left alone,

covered in her own blood.

On behalf of
Mr. Rowland's family,

I would just like the court
to know that they have

stood behind him 100%
from the day of his arrest.

They have believed
from the beginning

that the wrong person
had been charged,

and they still hold
that belief today.

It was tough looking at him.

What kind of animal...

Does this?

And then shows no remorse.

After just an hour
of deliberation,

the jury found Rowland guilty

Murder, kidnapping,

and possession of a weapon
during a violent crime.

When they read it,

did the arm-pump of saying,
"Yes."

Then I know
the three of us were crying.

It's just nice to finally
get some type of...

I can't even say "closure,"

but just some part of it
was finally, like, done.

The judge, he sentenced
Mr. Rowland to life in prison.

Because that's exactly,
quite frankly,

the type of sentence
that was appropriate

for this kind of horrific act.

I have to thank, you know,

the judge and the jury,
they were...

They were fair.

♫ Today is a brand new day ♫

A big part of the takeaway
for people

was that we will not forget
Samantha Josephson's name.

♫ It's never hopeless if
you don't think it is ♫

♫ It's really all
in how you're lookin' at it ♫

This whole thing caused Uber
and Lyft

to come out of the woodwork
making statements

about what they're planning
to do with their own companies.

For us, it's a reminder
that we have to constantly

do everything we can
to raise the bar on safety.

♫ The voice inside
is talkin' to me, sayin' ♫

♫ You got the power ♫

New Jersey actually
reached out to Marci and I

and wanted our input on a bill.

♫ It starts right here ♫

We tried to come up
with a way of ensuring

that, at a minimum,

when somebody gets into that
Uber or Lyft,

it is verified,
that is your driver

and they know
this is their rider as well.

We did share our bill with our
state, the state of New Jersey,

and they took it almost verbatim
with a few tweaks.

Almost immediately,
the notion of passing a law

that would do everything
we could

to prevent something like this
from ever happening

in New Jersey
was an immediate impulse,

both by the legislature
as well as by my office.

It's called Sami's Law,
and that law did go through

where you had to have a QR code
on the car window

so that you could confirm
your ride before getting in.

♫ Choose love over fear ♫

♫ Choose love over fear ♫

We passed a Sami's Law
in the last Congress

that was comprehensive.

It was held up in the Senate,
like so many bills are.

No matter how it gets passed,
Sami's Law has to become law.

So be it.
Let's just get it done.

♫ Love over fear ♫

I actually have quit my job.

All I do now is the foundation.

My family and friends
put a lot of time and energy

into making this the foundation,
the What's My Name foundation.

Instead of saying,
"Oh, are you here for Sydney?"

You you'd say,
"Who are you here for?"

Or, "What's my name?"

Since we've started
the foundation,

we've gotten so many emails
and messages from people

either saying, you know,
thank you because, you know,

this saved me, or asking us
how they could spread the word.

I'm just so proud
of who she became.

Proud to be her mom.

You know, my heart's broken.

But I do have great memories.

I miss her laugh.

I miss being able to text her
when my parents are annoying me.

Or send her a picture of the dog
when he does something cute.

I think just having that person
there that...

you know is going to be there

is big.

I want her to be
remembered as...

a as a bright, fun-loving,

great friend, great daughter.