GUILTY SC - Jeremy Leaphart, 20, Batesburg-Leesville, 24 Dec 2007

hoppyfrog

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http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=57070

Lexington County deputies are asking for the public's help to find a man missing since Christmas Eve.

Jeremy Leaphart, 20, of Batesburg-Leesville hasn't been seen since he left his home on December 24.

and

Family members told investigators they received two phone calls from Jeremy following his disappearance.

Metts explained, "He called twice saying they want $5,000 or they're going to kill him...he called a second time saying $2500 or they're going to kill me."

and

Leaphart is 6-foot and weighs 130 pounds. He has brown hair and blue eyes. He also has a tattoo on his arm of three initials. His family says he suffers from A.D.H.D and stutters.

more at link

pic
0814162335_MISSING%20MAN.jpg
 
http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7612690&nav=0RaPTXfE

16 Jan 08

A Monetta man is in jail, charged in the December disappearance of a 20-year-old Batesburg-Leesville man.

Darrell LaSteven "Little Steve" Williams, 24, turned himself in at 1:00pm Saturday and is charged with kidnapping. His bond was denied at a hearing Sunday morning.

The arrest warrant alleges that Williams and three other people, who have not yet been identified, coerced Leaphart to enter a motor vehicle at about 4:00pm on Christmas Eve on Haven Road near Batesburg-Leesville.

much more at link
 
This is very scary.
Hoping they find Jeremy alive and well,very soon.
 
http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7757785&nav=0RaPbtjq

23 Jan 08

The family of Jeremy Leaphart had their worst fears confirmed Wednesday after a body found in Leaphart's hometown was identified as the missing 20-year-old.

Darrell Williams has already been arrested in the case. And now a second man has been arrested and formally charged with murder in the case.

Sheriff Michael Hunt says 17-year-old Frankie L. Gantt of Monetta is charged with kidnapping and murder.

morea at link
 
My heart goes out to his family. Not the outcome they would have wanted.
 
they equate a human life with $5000? Makes me sick :sick: :sick:
 
He was just a kid...so sad. Did those guys really want the parents to pay the money or what? Did they give the parents time to get the money together? Nothing more was said about the money except that he had called home twice. Surely the parents would have given them the money in exchange for their son.
 
From April 2009:

http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/latest/lat_518660.shtml

Four men who pleaded guilty to kidnapping in a 2007 murder case involving a 20-year-old Batesburg man were sentenced today in an Aiken County courtroom to 17 years confinement.

Those sentenced were Ronnie Bowers Jr., John Oakman Jr., Marion Abner and Andre Norris. Three other men – Johnnie Walker, Sheldon Oakman and Darrell Williams – were sentenced Monday to 30 years imprisonment in the same case on a kidnapping plea.

Frankie Gantt, who is believed to be the gunman who fatally shot Jeremy Leaphart on Christmas Eve 2007, was sentenced Monday to 45 years on a guilty plea to murder.
 

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