Blue Ridge Murder Unsolved

     Each day thousands of people traveling on Interstate 85 pass the Blue Ridge Savings Bank in Greer at Highway -14-.
     Many of those travelers may not realize a terrible, unsolved crime happened there.
     Five years ago today someone held up the bank.  In the course of the robbery, three people were shot to death.
     "Myself, my brother and our mother were going to tour the BMW plant that afternoon," remembers David Holtzclaw, whose mother, Sylvia Holtzclaw, was killed during the robbery.  "She was supposed to get off work early."
     Sylvia's substitute couldn't make it, so Sylvia would have to finish out her workday at the bank, the only teller on duty.
     At 1:30, the bank's panic alarm went off.  Police would discover a horrific crime scene.  The bank had been robbed.  Sylvia Holtzclaw and two customers, Eb and Maggie Barnes of Spartanburg, were found in a small room, shot to death.
     "She called me that morning, and we were just discussing plans for the day," recalls Debbie Daither, Sylvia's close friend.  "She was a little upset.  She was by herself and didn't like that.  It happened several times, usually on Fridays."  Debbie says while Sylvia didn't like being on duty at the bank by herself, she considered it something she had to do.
     "To this day, I still have trouble believing what happened" at the bank the afternoon of May 16, 2003, says Daither.
     News Channel 7 has been shown key evidence in the bank crime, evidence the public has never seen before.  Police say it is evidence that could still solve the triple-murder and robbery.
     Lt. Matt Hamby of the Greer Police Department showed a Glock 40-caliber handgun to News Channel 7's Tom Crabtree.  "For all practical purposes this would be the identical type of weapon that was used in the Blue Ridge Savings Bank triple-homicide."  Hamby says the same weapon was used to kill all three victims.
     Hamby is lead investigator in the case.  He's worked it from the start.  He believes the robber likely didn't plan to shoot anyone and that the three murders were a reaction to some change in the scenario, possibly the Barnes couple entering the bank.  "It could be that, or it could be something else that we just are not aware of," says Hamby.
     But who committed the crime?  Possibly a man who is now dead.
     Police wanted to question 39-year-old Emmerson Wright of Aiken, but he took his own life two years after the Greer murders as officers in Georgia were about to arrest him.
     Lt. Hamby says two weeks before the crime in Greer, Wright stole a car in Columbia just like the red Oldsmobile Alero snapped by the surveillance camera of a business near the bank around the time of the 2003 robbery.
     "So we do know he was driving a car identical to the one we are looking at, involved in this particular crime.  And he had favoritism towards carrying a weapon that matched one used in our crime.  Plus he was also in the middle of a crime spree at this period of time."  Lt. Hamby says investigators will pursue the Emmerson Wright angle "until we can either lay it to rest or feel that he is responsible for the crime."
     Police are also watching to see if the Glock handgun used in the Greer killings resurfaces and can be traced.  "So if that gun is ever used at another crime, hopefully the test results would show a match to our crime scene,"  says Hamby.
     On this fifth anniversary of the crime, Debbie Daither says she will think of the friend she misses so much.  She'll also think about the person who took three lives and whether he feels  remorse.  "I do know Sylvia would have forgiven them, and I do forgive them.  I just would like to see this person brought to justice."
     Survivors of Eb and Maggie Barnes did not want to be interviewed for this report.  But Maggie's brother, Lawrence Melton, issued a statement through the Greer Police Department on the family's behalf.  It includes this paragraph:
     "Their oldest daughter still cannot do any banking on Friday, and their son and youngest daughter will use a window or ATM before entering the building if necessary.  I feel uncomfortable, and I look at people suspiciously.  And I cannot watch movies that glorify bank robbers, pirates or the mafia..."
     If you have information you think could help solve the Blue Ridge Savings Bank triple-homicide and robbery, Greer police ask you to call 864-848-2151.
     Greer police would also like to talk to you if you have purchased a 40-caliber Glock handgun in the last five years and you are uncertain of the gun's history.
     Police are redistributing a poster about the triple-homicide and robbery.  It says there is a $100,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction.
     I contacted the main office of Blue Ridge Savings Bank to request an interview for this report.  My calls were not returned.