Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

She Entered What She Thought Was An Uber. Then She Was Found Dead.

Hundreds gathered at the University of South Carolina on Sunday to remember the life of student Samantha Josephson, who was found dead over the weekend after getting into a car she mistook for her Uber, The State reported.

Josephson, 21, was last seen early Friday night after getting into a black Chevrolet Impala. Police believe she thought it was the Uber ride she called at 2 a.m. after a night out with friends. Her body was found the next day on a dirt road 65 miles southeast of Columbia, where the campus is located.

Nathaniel David Rowland, 24, was arrested Saturday on charges of murder and kidnapping. He is not a driver for Uber, according to police.

Funeral services are April 3 at Congregation Beth Chaim in Princeton, New Jersey, where Josephson grew up.

Josephson’s parents, friends and peers celebrated her life on Sunday behind USC’s Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center. Josephson, known as Sami, was a political science major set to graduate in June; she was accepted into Drexel University’s law school. She was a member of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority and has been described as “energetic and selfless,” according to The State.

Her father, Seymour, told The State that he wants to enhance safety measures on ride-sharing applications like Uber so no one else has to “ever go through this again.”

“I can’t tell you how painful this is,” he said.

Alyssa Fisher is a writer at the Forward. Email her at fisher@forward.com, or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version