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Samantha Josephson Stabbed More Than 100 Times by Fake Uber Driver
How a simple mistake led to a young USC student’s brutal murder
21-year-old University of South Carolina student Samantha Josephson was out with friends in Columbia’s Five Points on March 29, 2019. As the night ended, she ordered an Uber to take her home, but the car she got into was not the Uber she had requested. Instead, she mistook the car of Nathaniel David Rowland as her ride and got in when he pulled up alongside her on the curb.
Videos taken by nearby surveillance cameras in the area show Samantha talking on her cell phone around 2:00 a.m. outside the Bird Dog Bar before stepping into the black Chevrolet Impala later identified as that of Rowland.
After leaving the bar with Samantha in his car, Rowland stopped at some point and attacked her, stabbing the young co-ed more than more than 100 times. Samantha attempted to protect herself from the blows, as evidenced by a wound that had gone completely through her right hand as she held it up in a defensive position.
Another wound to Samantha’s head had been delivered with so much force that the blade went completely through her skull…