Investigators with the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office are hoping that partial skeletal remains discovered Saturday morning may put to rest a 2-year old missing persons case.
The Sheriff’s Office said the remains, discovered by a timber crew off Hope Road in Fairfield County, may be those of William Ira Pound Jr., the 54-year-old Batesburg-Leesville man who hasn’t been seen since Nov. 29, 2010. Pound’s family told news outlets in 2010 that he had intended to visit his mother in a Fairfield County nursing home that day. The following day, Pound’s car was found wrecked on Old River Road, about 1 mile east of I-77, but a search of the area, aided by thermal image scans of the surroundings, failed to turn up a driver. At the time of the recovery of the vehicle, Pound had not been reported missing, and the car was thought to have been abandoned and was towed from the scene.
Pound’s wife, Sharon Pound, reported him missing to the Lexington County Sheriff’s Office Dec. 11, but it wasn’t until January 2011 that a Ridgeway salvage yard connected Pound’s name to the wrecked vehicle on his lot. A witness later came forward and reported seeing a man matching Pound’s description walking down Hope Road on the day of the accident, approximately 2 miles from where the car was recovered. The witness said the man was missing one shoe and had a towel wrapped around his head. More than 40 volunteers searched an 8-mile area for days following the report, with no luck.
Capt. Brad Douglas of the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office said the remains have been sent to the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) for testing and identification. It was not known at press time when results of those tests would be available.