41 years later — Family continues search for Herman “Deac” Caldwell, Jr.
COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — Forty-one years ago on March 3rd, 1982, Herman and Ella Caldwell saw their son Herman Jr. for the last time.
Family members say Caldwell withdrew $500 from his bank account that day and told his mother he was going to Charleston.
He was never heard from again.
Herman, or Deac, as friends and family called him, was 32-years-old when they last saw him at their family’s home near Martin Luther King Boulevard in Hopkins.
On Friday, his sisters and nephew’s wife met at Richland County Sheriff’s Department — still hoping to find their loved one.
Caldwell’s parents now deceased, Caldwell’s sister Verna Eze says they’ve never stopped looking for answers.
“We’re trying to carry out Mama’s wishes. We would like to be able to find something — find out something about what happened to him,” Eze says.
According to family, Caldwell was driving his black and gray 1972 Pontiac Grand Prix the day he disappeared.
“To never see him again? That is so hard to deal with. And my Mom, every time she thought about it, she would cry. To think about her oldest son–never seeing him again…” says Caldwell’s sister Shirley Glover.
Whether Caldwell is still alive or not, his family says they just want closure.
“I believe in my heart if he still remembers us, or if he still has the memory that he would contact us, but we need to know what happened to him. It’s been a long time,” says Caldwell’s sister Mary Jones.
Investigator Dottie Cronise with RCSD says Caldwell was the victim of a robbery years before his disappearance.
She says Caldwell testified against the suspect who was convicted of the robbery and released from prison shortly before Caldwell went missing.
Cronise says there is concern that Caldwell’s disappearance may be related to that incident.
She also says no detail is too small to share with them, saying, “So please contact us, let us look at it, it may be the piece that we’re missing.”
If you have any information on Caldwell contact the Richland County Sheriff’s Department at 803-576-3000.
