Community Corner

10 Years Later: Murders at Blue Ridge Bank Unsolved

A "Hope and Remembrance" service will be held at 1 p.m. May 16 at Greer City Park.

After 10 years, David Holtzclaw still remembers the exact spot where he was standing in Haywood Mall on May 16, 2003, when he got a phone call that changed his life.

A friend saying, “ ‘Can I come pick you up and bring you home?’ ”

Holtzclaw, admittedly, demanded to know what was going on. He questioned everything. Why did he need to come home? Why did someone think it was best for him to stay at the mall and wait to be picked up?

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When Holtzclaw got the answer to his many questions, it would shake his very foundation.

The drive home and the hours that followed were a blur, as Holtzclaw had just learned that his mother, Sylvia Holtzclaw, a bank teller at Blue Ridge Savings Bank, and two customers of the bank, Dr. Eb Barnes and his wife, Maggie, had been killed in a bank robbery.

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Remembering the victims

Ten years later, Holtzclaw still hopes that someone can help find the killer.

A service of “Hope and Remembrance” will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday at Greer City Park Amphitheater, 301 E. Poinsett St., Greer, to remember the lives of three people, who many would define as hard-working, model citizens and pillars of the community. (In the event of inclement weather, the service will be held at Greer First Baptist.)

“We want people to remember these three people and to know that their case is still as important today, as it was 10 years ago,” Holtzclaw said. “Someone out there may have the piece of information that police need to solve these three murders.”

Dr. Eb Barnes was a physics professor at the University of South Carolina Spartanburg, now USC Upstate, and coordinator of the USCS program at the University Center. During December graduation, Barnes would often wear a Santa hat to match his long white beard, instead of the traditional mortarboard. In the spring, he donned a straw hat. Maggie Barnes was employed with the National Beta Club. She also was involved in several charitable organizations in the Spartanburg community.

And then there’s Sylvia Holtzclaw, who her son describes as nothing short of “amazing.”

“She was a single mom and she did everything she could to provide for us,” Holtzclaw said. “She was an amazing mom. We had all that we ever wanted and she did all that she could to make sure that we did.”

Holtzclaw described her as unselfish and giving, a people person who some customers had followed from one bank to the next.

Her giving spirit was one of the reasons her sons have established the annual "Syl Syl" Toy Drive to help provide Christmas for needy children in the commmunity.

“She had a big heart,” Holtzclaw said. “Hallmark should name a card after her because she would send a card to anybody and everybody. That’s the way she was. “

The last 10 years

Holtzclaw has remained in contact with investigators with the City of Greer and the FBI. He checks to see if there are any new leads and he continually replays those last few minutes he shared with his mom over and over in his mind.

“I wasn’t able to come home for Mother’s Day that year because Florida State had an ACC softball tournament, so I promised Mom that I’d come home the next weekend. She had arranged for the three of us (Kevin, David and their mom) to tour the BMW plant, and to spend some time together.”

Holtzclaw said he remembered he got into town late that Thursday night. He hadn’t expected his mom to wait up for him, but she had. He said they talked for a while and then they went to bed.

The next morning, he said his mother had gone on to work and had expected to be home early, but her backup called in sick, leaving Sylvia Holtzclaw alone at the bank. Working alone was something that Sylvia Holtzclaw had done on many occasions, and that her sons were not very fond of because of the bank’s location on a dead end Frontage Road facing Interstate 85.

Holtzclaw said he went to eat lunch with friends and while he was at Calabash Express, his brother called him to ask if he could take their mom something to eat for lunch at the bank.

Holtzclaw said he stopped by Arby’s on his way to the bank, talked to his mom for five or 10 minutes, and saying ‘goodbye’ around 1 p.m.

Twenty-nine minutes later, the panic alarm went off at the bank.

Soon the bank was swarming with activity. Holtzclaw said it was a scene that his brother Kevin would drive up on. He would learn from Dean Crisp, who at the time was Greer’s chief of police, that his mother had been killed.

“I don’t think anyone realizes how much this changes your life,” Holtzclaw said. “Ten years later, I’d say it still consumes my life. But I won’t give up trying to find out who did it or until the good Lord takes me home. I won’t give up hope.”

Greer Det. Dale Arterburn and Lt. Eric Pressley still work the case extremely hard.

There were nine homicides that year in Greer, Arterburn said. These three remain unsolved.

Arterburn said May 16, 2003 was a quiet Friday.

“When the call came in, I wasn’t sure that bank was in the city,” Arterburn said, who worked in the criminal investigative division at the time.

The next hours would result in a combined effort to find out what happened by the City of Greer, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office, Greenville Police, FDIC, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Arterburn said there was a lot of construction in that area as the Highway 14 bridge was being built.

Numerous hours would be spent going through tips and investigating leads those first few months.

“Three individuals lost their lives that day,” Pressley said. “We haven’t forgotten. We want to be able to give closure to those families. “

Pressley, who was a patrol commander in 2003, said he hopes this remembrance service will help to remind people that they are still looking for answers.

“Somebody has that little bit of information we need and we want to encourage them to come forward,” Pressley said.  “Even if it’s the littlest bit, call us.”

Arterburn and Pressley still work to chase down leads. It may be a phone call, a letter from a prisoner, or trips to local, state and federal prisons.

Both said that the case could be solved, if they just had that one piece of information. While the two don’t spend time on the case every day or even every month, it’s the case that Arterburn said he would never forget.

“It’s one of the most horrible things, I’ve ever seen,” Arterburn said of his almost 17 years of service as a police officer. “Just a horrible loss of life. I just wish that anyone who has information, please call us. They may think it's a worthless piece of information, but it may be that piece of information that we need.”

Arterburn said when he gets a new lead it sparks a fire to get it solved.

The poster that hangs in his office reminds him. But then there’s a personal connection. Kevin Holtzclaw works next door at Greer Fire Department. Arterburn said he sees Kevin several times a week in the agencies' shared parking lot.

“I haven’t been able to give him closure,” Arterburn said. "Nobody wants to carry that around on their back. These families need closure. People in this community need closure."

Anyone with information on this case is urged to contact the FBI Office in Greenville, South Carolina at (803) 551-4200 or the Greer Police Department at (864) 848-2151.


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