Edward Sean Aiken, 28, was found shot to death in a ditch along Seabrook Center Road in Seabrook, South Carolina, on July 18, 2018. The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office classified the death as an apparent murder and a forensic autopsy confirmed a fatal gunshot wound. Family members say he was shot in the back and then in the head and that he had been at a house party when an armed person appeared and he was shot while trying to flee. Investigators recovered evidence of a shooting at a residence near where his body was located, and the Sheriff’s Office opened an immediate investigation.

Aiken, who also went by Ada, was active in the Savannah LGBT community and remembered by friends and family as a peacemaker and jokester who often babysat for neighborhood children. No suspects have been publicly identified or arrested in connection with his killing. If anyone knew Edward, his movements that night, or has information about the shooting near Seabrook Center Road, please come forward.