Martha Ann Dicks, known by some as Clyde, disappeared from her South Sumter home in the early 1970s as a teenager, reported to be between 17 and 20 years old. Her sister said Martha went out to a club one evening and never returned. For years the family had no answers about what happened to her.

In 1977 Donald Henry Pee Wee Gaskins confessed at trial to killing Martha and led investigators to skeletal remains in a Sumter County drainage ditch. Gaskins said he had poisoned her by lacing a Coca-Cola with cyanide. Martha’s remains were sent for examination but were later transferred to a college and stored away; they were rediscovered in June 2025 during renovations at the College of Charleston.

The Sumter County coroner reclaimed the remains and media outreach located Martha’s nieces and nephews. In August 2025 she was buried in Walker Cemetery in Sumter, and family members remembered her as fun-loving and fond of teasing. Does anyone have memories of Martha or information about her life in South Sumter?