On April 29, 2024, Lashaunda Spurlock’s family’s worst nightmare came true: Lashaunda disappeared.
The 42-year-old has a learning disability and lives with her mom, Nellie Fletcher, in Society Hill, South Carolina.
Dateline spoke with Lashaunda’s younger sister, Tabitha Caudell, who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tabitha told Dateline about the evening Lashaunda disappeared.
According to Tabitha, Lashaunda lived a relatively independent life despite her learning disability, and would frequently leave the house on her own to go meet up with friends. However, she always let a family member know where she was going.
That was not the case on April 29, 2024.
Around 5:00 p.m. that evening, Lashaunda left the house without saying anything to her mother.
“This was different because she would always tell my mother where she was going because she had friends that lived in, like, the next town over that may come to pick her up,” Tabitha said. “She couldn’t drive. She doesn’t know how to drive.”
Nellie Fletcher remembers seeing her daughter leave that night. She also remembers seeing a car drive past the side of the house. “I was out in the backyard. And so she came out the back door. And so I just looked at her,” Nellie told Dateline. “I saw the car pulling in — the red car — but I didn’t see who was driving the car.”
According to Tabitha, a neighbor came forward and said they saw Lashaunda getting into the car. “A neighbor reported seeing her getting into a red older model vehicle, possibly a Kia Soul, on that day around 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. with two men,” Tabitha said. “She hasn’t been seen since.”
Dateline was unable to get in touch with the neighbor, but spoke to Captain Daniel Scott of the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office, who says he was able to speak to him as part of the investigation. “He stated when he pulled in, he’d seen a car parked right on the dirt road there in front of their home,” Scott said. The neighbor described the vehicle he saw on April 29 as a burgundy Kia Soul. “He said it looked like there might have been two Asian-descent males that was in the car,” Scott added.
Tabitha says the family doesn’t know of any of Lashaunda’s friends who would fit the description the neighbor gave of the men in the car.
Captain Scott says the sheriff’s office sought assistance from the Cheraw Police Department to check their street cameras for any vehicles matching the description of the car could be spotted. “We [had them look] at all the Flock cameras and they could not find anything,” he said.
The family knew something was really wrong on May 1. “She gets Social Security benefits on the first of every month. So when she did not come back to get her check, I think that’s when the bells really started going off,” Tabitha said. “Also, we were unable to communicate with her. Like, all of us tried to call her phone and it went straight to voicemail.”
“When she didn’t call, I already knew something was going on,” Nellie said. She reported her daughter missing on May 3.
Captain Scott says his office conducted a search for Lashaunda on May 21 that spanned 15-20 miles along the highway near Lashaunda’s home. “We didn’t find anything at all,” he said. But they haven’t given up. “We’re still searching, we’re still looking,” he stressed. “Every lead that we have, we follow up on.”
Tabitha remembers the gut-wrenching moment her mother told her Lashaunda was missing. “I think it was just shock for me. I don’t know. I think my stomach just kind of dropped but I still had a lot of hope that, you know, maybe, you know, ‘She’s reported her missing but hopefully this is nothing and she’ll just walk in the door tomorrow.’”
Tabitha does fear someone influenced Lashaunda to go with them. “This time it was odd, because she didn’t say anything. And that just made me believe that maybe she was possibly coerced, because this was just out of the norm for her,” Tabitha said.
Although they live in different states, Tabitha and Lashaunda still were very close. “She was loud, open, authentic, friendly,” Tabitha said. “She absolutely loved children.” Lashaunda’s disappearance has been extremely hard on the entire family, including one little cousin. “My sister used to help her with her homework when she would come home from school,” Tabitha said. “She had to be pulled out of school because she gets so upset. And I heard her on the phone screaming, not just crying. She’s screaming, begging for my sister to come home.”
Of course, it’s not just the little ones who are upset. “My mother’s been scared,” Tabitha said. “And that’s been tough for all of us.”
Lashaunda is 5’6”-5’7”, and weighs 220 lbs. She is African American with dark brown hair and black eyes. She would be 43 years old today. According to Tabitha Caudell, their mother described Lashaunda as wearing a long purple dress at the time of her disappearance.
If you have any information on Lashaunda’s whereabouts please contact the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office tip line at 843-287-0235. Pee Dee Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of $1,000 for information regarding Lashaunda’s whereabouts. They can be reached at 888-284-6372.
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