Silene Eaddy, also known as Erica, was 15 when she disappeared from her Columbia, South Carolina, home on Fountain Lake Road on the evening of April 15, 2004. She told her adoptive mother Brenda McCoy she was going for a walk to a neighbor’s house between 7:00 and 7:30 p.m.; that was the last time her family saw her alive.

In the early morning hours of April 17 firefighters found a badly burned body in a wooded area near Pincushion Road and Montgomery Lane in southern Richland County. Dental records identified the remains as Silene’s. An autopsy found soot in her airways, indicating she was likely alive when set on fire; investigators also determined the blaze was intentionally set, and tire tracks at the scene were recovered but did not identify a vehicle.

The Richland County Sheriff’s Department launched an intensive investigation with door-to-door canvasses, checkpoints, and community appeals, and the case has been included in cold case initiatives. No arrests or public suspect identifications have been announced, and family members including Brenda McCoy, who died in 2020, never learned who was responsible. Anyone with information about Silene’s last evening or the wooded area near Pincushion Road is asked to come forward.