Cassandra Johnson was 20 years old when her life was cut short by multiple stab wounds, her body found in a wooded area of Simpsonville nearly three decades ago, police said.
While no arrests have been made, her mother, police and a former investigator are holding out hope that the 1984 cold case could be solved.
“It appears there are leads to be followed,” Interim Police Chief Steve Moore said. “As long there are leads to be followed, then you have a case.”
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Johnson’s mother, Robbie Davis, said her daughter was the second oldest of five children and a graduate of Hillcrest High who had gone on to Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte to study political science.
She had dreams of becoming a lawyer and was the mother to a 3-year-old daughter, who is now 32, Davis said.
“She was kind, she was loving,” Davis said.
Officers found Johnson dead off West Georgia Road about 8 a.m. Sept. 22, 1984, Moore said.
Investigator Mike Hanshaw and Lt. Kevin Threlkeld are working on the case, building on work done by Keith Grounsell, Moore said.
Grounsell said the case was brought to him while he was lead investigator at the 13th Circuit Solicitor’s Office. He said he went through more than 1,000 pages of documents and put together a summary, including suspects, evidence and witnesses.
The case, he said, is on the verge of being solved.
“I want to get that family some closure,” Grounsell said.
Grounsell left the Solicitor’s Office last year to become Simpsonville police chief. When Grounsell was fired last month, it raised questions about what would happen to the Johnson case.
Moore said that while he was just starting to get familiar with the case, it appeared the next step could be for investigators to go through a long list of people who ought to be interviewed.
Davis said the last time she saw her daughter alive was when Johnson and her two sisters left the family’s Simpsonville apartment to go to a Hillcrest High football game. When they arrived home, the two sisters went inside, while Johnson stayed outside, talking to a neighbor, Davis said.
Davis said she was in Fountain Inn the next morning when she heard that a woman’s body had been found near her home. She remembered arriving on the scene and seeing yellow tape and her daughter’s blue purse.
An officer asked Davis for her name and told her to go home and that someone would come talk to her, she said.
“It was a nightmare,” Davis said. “And it has been a nightmare for a long time.”
The file on Johnson’s killing was started when most things were documented without computers and is the size of a suitcase, Moore said. It includes sketches, photos, an FBI profiling report, he said.
Seven suspects have been identified, he said.
“It appears there has been a good bit of work done on it,” Moore said.
Davis said her daughter’s unsolved killing has left deep wounds in her family, some of which have not healed. She said that if it weren’t for her faith, she wouldn’t have made it as far as she has.
“I just hope that before I die I can see someone prosecuted for this,” Davis said.
Anyone with information in the case can reach Threlkeld at 864-967-9536.
