Chandrakant Shantilal ’CJ’ Patel, a 52-year-old Indian American who managed an Exxon station in Homeland Park, South Carolina, vanished after leaving work on the evening of July 1, 2012. He told a clerk he would be back in a couple of hours and never returned. His car was found abandoned in Fair Play on July 3, about a two-hour drive from where he worked.

Surveillance placed Patel entering a residence on Jerry Drive rented by Kyndra Leann Howell; he was not seen leaving. Ten days after his disappearance, on July 11, 2012, his partially nude body was found about 200 yards down a small drive off Big Water Road. Investigators concluded he had been tortured and then shot to death, and determined robbery was the motive.

Four people were arrested in connection with the crime: Kyndra Leann Howell, Jeremiah Christian Johnson, Zachary Demond Gantt, and Ezra Williams, each facing charges that included murder, armed robbery, kidnapping, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. Did anyone in the area recognize Patel or see him after he left the station on July 1?