It has been 20 years to the day that Sam Lewis III was discovered shot in the parking lot of an apartment complex in West Augusta, and the bizarre murder remains unsolved to this day.
On July 1, 2001, a resident of the upscale Icon Waverly apartments, Bryson Johnson, called police around 11 p.m. and reported hearing gunshots in the parking lot. According to prior media reports, Johnson told police that he was asleep at the time and heard three distinct gunshots that awoke him.
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When officers arrived on the scene, they found Lewis, 21, barely alive and had him rushed by ambulance to the Medical College of Georgia.
Lewis died from exsanguination, massive blood loss caused by three shots to the chest and abdomen. CPR had failed to revive him enough to be taken in for surgery.
Dr. Thomas Howdieshell was a physician on duty that night when Lewis arrived.
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“The problem, CPR for penetrating trauma due to gunshot wounds, usually it’s not going to be effective because there’s no blood volume. You can push on the heart all you want to, but if the blood has been lost in the chest cavity or abdominal cavity, then CPR is not nearly effective,” Howdieshell said.
It is unclear from the police records, but Major Ken Autry was quoted in The Augusta Chronicle at the time of the murder as saying that Lewis was approached in the parking lot by two men wearing ski masks. An altercation ensued, and Lewis was shot. According to reports, the men fled the scene, but it is not clear whether they fled on foot or in a vehicle.
It is also a mystery how Lewis himself ended up in the parking lot. His address is listed 2002 First Ave., in East Augusta, some 10 miles away from the crime scene. Nothing in the police reports indicated that Lewis drove himself to the scene.
The report that the perpetrators were wearing masks would indicate Lewis was unknown to them. However, the police summary does not suggest robbery as a possible motive.
In prior press reports, Lewis’ family stated that he suffered from a club foot, was unemployed and was receiving disability payments.
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Lewis could have happened upon the men while they were committing another crime, but no one in the complex claimed to know Lewis or to have had him visiting their apartment.
Another possible theory, a drug deal gone wrong, also doesn’t seem to fit the circumstances. Lewis had no criminal history and was not known to have any addictions. A quiet, suburban parking lot seems to be an unlikely place for such transactions to occur.
Investigators still do not know how Lewis ended up in the parking lot, but the evidence showed he was not shot and then dumped in the parking lot. Multiple people living at the apartment complex heard the commotion because Lewis was yelling at his attackers before they shot him.
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With every lead exhausted, the now 20-year-old case will likely remain an enigma forever. Lewis belongs to the ages along with scores of others here locally whose murders remain unsolved.
However, unsolved murder investigations are never closed completely. Anyone with information in the case is urged to contact the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office at (706) 821-1020 or The Augusta Press at (706) 834-8677.
Scott Hudson is the Editorial Page Editor of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com. Anna Porzio is a researcher and editorial assistant. Reach her at anna@theaugustapress.com.
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