What Happened to the Dorchester Three in South Carolina?

On April 3, 1987, Linda McCord, age 33 and her friend Sarah Boyd, age 32 drove to a gospel concert in Waltersboro, South Carolina. They were traveling in a blue Lincoln owned by Linda’s husband and also took Sarah’s 2 ½-year-old daughter Kimberly along with them. Around midnight, Sarah’s husband returned home from work and was surprised that his wife and daughter weren’t back home yet, but he assumed they had stayed over at Linda’s house and would be back the next morning. When they didn’t return, he filed a missing persons report with the police.

Linda’s husband found the car abandoned in Dorchester County two days later. Upon further examination, he discovered a freeze plug had blown out on the car and it must have overheated. There was no sign anywhere of Linda, Sarah or Kimberly. Investigators were able to determine the trio was scene at the concert, and a witness was reported to have seen them driving on the road around 11 p.m. The car was found in the front yard of a home, but no one who lived there recalled seeing anyone in it. Authorities from Orangeburg and Coleton Counties assisted in the investigation, and the F.B.I.  and South Carolina Law Enforcement Division were notified of the case as well.

The families set up a reward fund and took out an ad in a local newspaper offering $6,000 to anyone with information about the whereabouts of the two women and the toddler.

At the end of July, a few months after the McCord and the Boyds went missing, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division conducted a search of the area where the car was found. As a plane was flying over during the search, they discovered three acres of well-tended and irrigated marijuana fields in a farming area. Law enforcement estimated the plants had a street value of $20 million dollars. The fields were all on land owned by members of the same family, and three individuals were arrested as part of their involvement in the drug operation. Unfortunately, the search for the women was called off after the discovery of the marijuana, and law enforcement focused their attention on confiscating and clearing out the plants and arresting the individuals involved. That was the last report of the search I could find.

Based on a letter to the editor that was published in the April 10, 1988 issue of The Times and Democrat newspaper in Orangeburg, South Carolina, the friends and family of Linda McCord and Sarah and Kimberly Boyd were frustrated with the lack of media coverage following the disappearance.

A friend of Kimberly’s wrote the following:

It has been one year, April 3, since Sarah Boyd and her daughter disappeared. The school in which Mrs. Boyd is employed sponsored a program on Wednesday, April 5, entitled, “Where Are They?”

I am a close friend of Mrs. Boyd employed here in Orangeburg County and I haven’t seen anything in the newspaper to this effect.

Let me brief you on the incident that occurred. Mrs. McCord, Mrs. Boyd and Kimberly went to a gospel concert in Walterboro on April 3, 1987. They were last seen driving slowly on Highway 15 between Canadays and Walterboro. The car was found at Wells Crossroads with no trace of these individuals.

If anyone has any information leading to the whereabouts of these three individuals please inform the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Department or your local authorities. The students and faculty of Norman C. Toole Middle School along with relatives and friends want to know.

There is one final footnote to this story. In 1990, Sarah Boyd’s credit card was used in a local mall in 1990. Police stated the signature was barely legible and didn’t match Sarah’s writing. The identity of the credit card user has never been established.

At the time the women disappeared, Sarah Boyd was a black female who stood between five feet four and five feet six inches tall. She weighed approximately 105 pounds, wore eyeglasses and had on a beige flower print dress. Kimberly had black hair and brown eyes, stood three feet four inches and weighed 25 pounds. Linda was a black female who also wore eyeglasses. There are no stats available on her height and weight or clothing. Foul play has always been suspected in this case. Anyone with information on the disappearance of Sarah and Kimberly Boyd and Linda McCord should contact the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office 843-873-5111.

This case was featured in Episode 21 of the podcast, Missing in the Carolinas, “Missing After a Night Out.” You can listen to the full episode here.