Family, investigators still hope for answers in Blue Ridge Savings Bank murders

When he got the job as athletic coordinator with Greer Recreation and when he worked at the Master’s golf tournament, and sometimes for no reason at all, David Holtzclaw has gone over to Mountain View Cemetery to talk to his mom.

He always goes on Mother’s Day and on May 16, the day she died. The visits bring him a certain amount of peace amid the lingering, difficult questions about who murdered her while she worked as a teller at Blue Ridge Savings Bank in Greer 12 years ago.

That’s all Holtzclaw has, memories and questions. Who shot Sylvia Holtzclaw and Eb Barnes and Maggie Barnes to death with a 40-caliber Glock on that warm May day around lunchtime? Why, if it was a simple bank robbery, were they shot? And why has it been so hard to solve this crime?

Thousands of hours have been expended by dozens of federal, state and local investigators, and yet they are no closer to answering those questions than when the first officer arrived on the scene 13 minutes after Holtzclaw tripped the bill trap in the cash drawer, unleashing an immediate alert that a bank robbery was in progress.

The case remains open, and leads continue to come in, said Greer Police Lt. Eric Pressley. In fact, a promising one came in not too long ago that investigators are working on. He declined to give details on what it was or whom it involved, but the informant gave them a name.

There have been many names through the years and some 700 leads. Callers said their neighbor did it, or Joe did it. Inmates looking for lesser sentences called in with tips.

“We didn’t ignore any of them,” Pressley said.

[“source-greenvilleonline.com”]