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RIDGEWAY – A Winnsboro man was arrested late Friday afternoon at his home on Sandifer Road and charged with the May 8 robbery of the First Citizen’s Bank in Ridgeway.

The Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office said Boyd William Rowe, 52, was arrested without incident after investigators executed a search warrant on Rowe’s home where several hundred dollars in cash was found hidden in the back yard.

Rowe is believed to be the man who walked unarmed into the First Citizen’s Bank just after 3 p.m. on May 8 and demanded money from the teller on duty. Rowe allegedly told the teller that he didn’t want any “funny money,” indicating a bag of money containing a dye pack. After the teller had handed over $934 from the bank drawer, the suspect now identified by investigators as Rowe ran out of the bank, across the street and into the alley behind Laura’s Tea Room. Witnesses reported that the suspect got into a small white pickup truck and headed south down Highway 21.

It was a bit of inspiration that first pegged Rowe as a lead suspect in the case. Chief Deputy Keith Lewis said he knew Rowe had recently moved back into the area and he knew Rowe had a list of priors.

“I thought about him while I was lying in bed Thursday night,” Lewis said. “I remembered him and I wondered what he was up to, so we decided to check him out.”

Surveillance video was a start. Although the bank robber covered his face while inside the bank, video of him crossing the street – while not perfect – indicated enough of a resemblance to Rowe for investigators to look closer into his whereabouts on May 8. Investigators then learned that Rowe’s neighbor owned a small white pickup truck – a 1982 Dodge – that he often loaned out to Rowe, and at the time of the robbery, Rowe had indeed been in possession of his neighbor’s truck.

Lewis said investigators met with Rowe, who provided alibis for his whereabouts during the time of the robbery. After all of his alibis fell through, Lewis said the Sheriff’s Office obtained and executed a search warrant on Rowe’s home at 234 Sandifer Road. Investigators recovered what they described as “several items of evidence” inside the home. In the back yard, hidden inside a trash can, officers found between $300 and $400, believed to have been stolen from First Citizen’s Bank.

Rowe has lived at the Sandifer Road home since June of 2013. His list of convictions date back to 1980, when he was first picked up in Winnsboro for grand larceny. In 1985, Rowe was charged with housebreaking in Charleston County, and in 2000 with strong armed robbery and purse snatching in Newberry County. In 2012, Rowe was charged with grand larceny, also in Newberry County. Rowe also has numerous driving under suspension and DUI convictions on his résumé, as well as several drug charges.

Rowe was transported to the Fairfield County Detention Center where, as of press time, he is awaiting a bond hearing.

WINNSBORO – It may not have been a Hollywood-style high-speed chase along the lines of Steve McQueen in “Bullitt” or Gene Hackman in “The French Connection,” but high-speed pursuits involving a U-Haul rarely are. Especially a U-Haul towing a tractor on the back of a flatbed trailer.

Style points aside, investigators from the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office now have two men in custody whom they have linked to a larger organization, one that has pilfered Fairfield and surrounding counties of thousands of dollars in farm equipment and other machinery in a detailed and seemingly impervious operation.

The break came on April 12 when a deputy working special duty at the Waffle House off I-77 exit 34 in Ridgeway spotted a U-Haul towing a tractor traveling down Highway 34 at approximately 2:43 a.m. Deputies had been put on special alert for suspicious U-Hauls after preliminary investigations into the theft of equipment from J. Wilbur Collins & Co. on Kincaid Bridge Road in March determined that thieves were using U-Hauls to cart away heavy gear. County units in the Ridgeway area were notified and attempted to pull the U-Haul over after the driver of the truck crossed the center line. When the pursuing deputy hit his blue lights, the U-Haul hit the gas and raced down 34, heading toward Winnsboro.

At the intersection of Highway 321 Bypass, the U-Haul made a sharp left, heading south. The driver then swooped into the median, cutting across the grass and into the north-bound lane – still heading south as fast as the U-Haul could manage. Backup units raced ahead of the U-Haul, clearing traffic as the chase advanced south, while pursuing units followed in the south-bound lane. An oncoming mini-van only barely avoided a head-on collision.

Highway 321 became two lanes again, and the U-Haul hung a rickety left onto Roddy Road, following it to where it dead-ends before plowing through the front yard of a home, diving into a creek and crashing against a tree. The doors flew open and the driver and a passenger fled on foot into the darkness. The passenger leapt into the creek, but was apprehended a few yards away. The driver made a better show of it, and bloodhounds were called to the scene to sniff out his trail. Half an hour later, the driver was found cowering underneath the front porch of a nearby home.

The passenger was identified as Tyrone David Holloway, 44, of 421 Dewpoint Road, Columbia. The driver was identified as Michael Booker, 47, of 1460 Oak Crest Drive, Columbia. The U-Haul was reported stolen from Two Notch Road, Columbia, while the tractor and the trailer were reported stolen from the Rosewood Drive area of Columbia. Holloway was charged with possession of stolen property, while Booker was charged with several counts of grand larceny. All told, the goods recovered that morning were worth approximately $36,000, yet they represent only a fraction of what the organization has netted in recent months. Moreover, investigators believe the thefts date back years and are the work of a larger ring with tentacles stretching across the entire state.

Although the identity of the person sitting at the top of the pyramid is, to date, unknown, Chief Deputy Keith Lewis said the organization operates out of another county. The organization is broken up into smaller groups of specialists, none of whom is aware of the other’s identity. It begins with an advanced team of scouts, who spend day after day driving around the state, casing properties and making notes of low-hanging fruit – lawn equipment left outdoors, trailers parked outside homes or businesses, tractors or other machinery left in the open or in easily breached lots. The scout team reports back and a second team is dispatched to make the theft. Individual teams specialize in specific types of equipment, Lewis said – lawn mowers, dump trucks, tractors, trailers. After the items are stolen, thieves then take the goods to a predetermined drop point – typically the parking lot of a business or church, or at a truck stop. A third unit is there waiting for them to give the thieves a lift back to their individual assembly points and the stolen goods are left to await pickup by a fourth team.

On March 11, a team hit J. Wilbur Collins & Co. They made off with a lawn mower, a pressure washer and a trailer. The take was so good, they decided to come back for a second helping a week later. But by then, the company had upgraded their surveillance cameras, and while investigators were not able to identify any suspects during the second, abortive, attempt on J. Wilbur Collins, they were able to see that suspects were employing a U-Haul in their efforts. That image stuck, and when deputies spotted a U-Haul parked and left unattended in the Wal-Mart parking lot on the 321 Bypass on March 18, they decided to have a look.

Inside the U-Haul, investigators saw that the ignition switch had been broken, and a check on the vehicle determined that it had indeed been stolen out of Richland County just days earlier. It was enough for the Sheriff’s Office to send out an intelligence report to its deputies to be on the lookout for U-Hauls passing through the county, which led to the April 12 chase and arrest.

Since the arrest of Holloway and Booker, the Sheriff’s Office said investigators have cleared up three cases in Fairfield County, including the theft of a trailer from the Jenkinsville Water Company on April 4, the theft of a Ford F-450 along with other equipment from a construction site in Jenkinsville on April 1 and the J. Wilbur Collins case. One case in Newberry County, one in the city of Newberry, two cases in Lexington County and four cases in Richland County have also been cleared since the arrests. More cases are pending, the Sheriff’s Office said, although cracking the ring completely may prove a more difficult challenge. The structure of the organization, designed to limit contact between the levels of operation, virtually ensures only the smallest fish may ever swim into law enforcement’s net.

In the meantime, Lewis advises citizens to keep their gear locked up tight.

RIDGEWAY – A man armed with nothing more than the overwhelming power of persuasion walked out of the First Citizens Bank in Ridgeway with $934 this afternoon, fleeing town in a white pickup truck.

The Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office is searching for a white male who walked into the bank just after 3 p.m. today, approached the teller on duty and demanded money. The suspect reportedly told the teller that he didn’t want any “funny money,” indicating a bag of money containing a dye pack. After the teller had handed over the contents of the bank drawer, the suspect ran out of the bank, across the street and into the alley behind Laura’s Tea Room where he got into a white pickup truck and headed south down Highway 21.

The suspect was reportedly wearing a large camouflage jacket, blue jeans and white tennis shoes. Although early reports out of Ridgeway indicated the suspect was armed, the Sheriff’s Office said no one ever saw a gun, nor did the suspect do anything to make the victims believe had had a gun.

Check back for more details as events unfold.

WINNSBORO – A Columbia man who worked as a teller for the Wells Fargo bank on N. Congress Street in Winnsboro was arrested last week following an investigation by the Winnsboro Department of Public Safety (WDPS) into a rash of fraudulent transactions.

Brandon Michael Mathis, 23, of Angus Drive in Columbia, was arrested April 5 and charged with four counts of breach of trust with fraudulent intent, the Department said, in cases that date back as far as last September and involving mostly senior citizens. The reports began cropping up in February, beginning with a 75-year-old Blackstock man who told investigators on Feb. 6 that he had cashed a check for $268.80 at the drive-thru on Jan. 21 and later found his account had been tapped for $4,286.80. On Feb. 12, a 35-year-old Winnsboro man reported that he had withdrawn $1,525 from his account on Jan. 9, but later discovered his account had been hit for an additional $110. On March 4, an 88-year-old Winnsboro woman told police that her account had been debited for an additional $2,000 after she made a $900 withdrawal on Jan. 13. A 54-year-old Winnsboro woman found her account drained of $11,200 between September 2013 and March 2014.

Mathis was released on an $8,000 personal recognizance bond the same day he was arrested. He has since been terminated from Wells Fargo, although a Wells Fargo spokesperson would not say when nor would he say how long Mathis had been employed there.

WINNSBORO – Department of Public Safety investigators arrested Byron Sampson, 37, earlier this month after a search warrant turned up a significant amount of illegal narcotics at his Palmer Street home.

Chief Freddie Lorick said a controlled buy by undercover agents was made several weeks in advance, giving his department enough to seek a warrant. On April 10, agents raided the Palmer Street home, arresting Sampson and seizing 142 grams of marijuana, 49 grams of crack cocaine, as well as $6,500 in cash and a random selection of cell phones. Sampson has been charged with distribution of both marijuana and crack cocaine.

BLYTHEWOOD — Three hundred years after the masterpieces of baroque music were composed for the great courts of France, Germany, Italy and England, those same melodies are still played daily on a Baroque-period harpsichord in a charming log cabin in rural Blythewood by Jerry Curry, a founding member of the Columbia Baroque Soloists. The Soloists aren’t soloists at all, of course, but five professional musicians who, seven years ago, formed a chamber ensemble that utilizes period instruments such as the viola da gama, recorder and harpsichord. Today they enchant audiences at performances throughout the Midlands.

“It’s wonderful playing with this group,” Curry said, “because they’re so good, and they understand baroque music so well. Plus we have an audience that really enjoys coming to listen to baroque music.”

Now a professor emeritus at the University of South Carolina’s School of Music, Curry was a doctoral student in Music Theory at the University of Iowa in the late 1960s when he first become interested in the harpsichord. He performed in an ensemble directed by Robert Donington, a preeminent baroque specialist, and then accepted his first teaching job at a school in Kentucky that happened to have a harpsichord. The fortuitous turn of events sparked Curry’s career-long fascination with baroque performance practice. Along the way, he also studied with Kenneth Gilbert, one of the most highly regarded harpsichordists in the world.

“When Jerry came to USC in 1970,” his wife, Vivian, recalled, “one of his colleagues had just ordered a harpsichord, and Jerry was practicing on it all the time. Finally, she just said, ‘Jerry, I think you need to move the harpsichord to your office!’”

Vivian, who herself has a master’s degree in music from USC, met Curry when she was a student in the first class he taught there. Though not a member of the ensemble, she is intricately involved with the group and plays a strong promotional role. She said that for her, the splendor of baroque music stands the test of time.

“The group’s most recent performance, at Columbia College in April, featured excerpts from an absolutely exquisite opera by Lully, the favorite court musician of King Louis XIV,” Vivian said. “They sang excerpts and played the dance music from it. There is a sense of being transported back in time. The music is dazzling and, listening to it, I just imagined being at Versailles, out in the little country cottage that Louis XIV built for his friends and family. This music was an integral part of their daily lives.”

Curry said that, as the only group of its kind in South Carolina, the ensemble’s goal is to bring to life the beauty and spirit of early 18th century music and share it with the public. The Soloists present four main-stage performances every year, with an average audience close to 100, and they also make numerous appearances at libraries, schools and other outreach venues. Each year, the group holds a Summer Institute of master classes for recorder and harpsichord and participates in events such as master classes for high schoolers at the Greenville Fine Arts Center. “These kids,” Vivian said, “were just enchanted with the gamba and the harpsichord. It was wonderful.”

Jean Hein, a distinguished musician who plays the baroque recorder with the Soloists, also teaches clarinet at Blythewood High School .

The group’s board of directors is very active and supportive, and the soloists each help out with administrative necessities like acquiring grants and organizing the performance schedule.

The ensemble will next appear at the Columbia Museum of Art this summer, with a program featuring selections of baroque music that were popular in colonial South Carolina.

For more information about the group’s upcoming performances, to listen to recordings of their music, and to find out more about their Summer Institute at USC’s School of Music, go to their website at ColumbiaBaroque.com. You can also follow them on Facebook at facebook.com/ColumbiaBaroque.

A Summer Road Trip Across S.C., Part Three of a Three-Part Guide to Crisscrossing South Carolina

In Joanna, on the eastern edge of Laurens County, the Blalock mausoleum dominates the Veterans’ Memorial. Once known as Goldsville, Joanna feels deserted. Beyond its outskirts, kudzu mobs deep woods. This topiary artist gone mad drowns local forests, and somewhere beyond its green masses, I know, farmers struggled to contain red gashes in the earth.

Through Laurens and on to Hickory Tavern. Land rises into green swells as I journey past the silver shoals of the Reedy River and on through Princeton, past aluminum frying pans hanging over some small-but-precious garden plant.

U.S. 178 cosigns with 76 from Honea Path to Anderson – the Electric City, the South’s first city to transmit electricity long-distance. On Nov. 14, 1931, Amelia Earhart flew in to the original airport in her Pitcairn PCA-2 Autogyro, promoting Beech-Nut products. Pondering her fate, I shoot beneath I-85 to La France past Pendleton’s outskirts where Samuel Augustus Maverick was born. Sam moved on to become an ornery Texas rancher, a “maverick” who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. Thus, did “maverick” enrich our language.

Here in Foothills Country, the land climbs. To the left sits the entrance to the Botanical Gardens of South Carolina and its 295 acres of gardens and bogs. U.S. 76 crosses Lake Hartwell and the Seneca River, where its inundated riverbed joins the Tugaloo to create the mighty Savannah, that great river of sovereign delineation.

Seneca, established 1873, shipped cotton over its rails. Then the mills came. Seneca, today, possesses a homogenized look here and there. Dollar stores, drug stores and Mexican restaurants. On to Westminster, just outside the dark green slopes of Sumter National Forest. All that greenery makes a doublewide trailer’s bright purple roof appear radioactive. The theme of old and new commingled continues: A classic barn near Westminster faces a mobile home across Highway 76.

The Chauga River passes beneath you, a mini Chattooga. Outside local trout fishermen, few know of the Chauga Narrows, a Class VI rapid. There’s where the true Earth exists. The Earth too wild to tame.

The Wild West appears in Long Creek, a strip mall that looks like a Wild West town, a place a cowboy can hitch his horse and get a shot of whiskey. No cacti live here in faux frontier land, but apple orchards fill the green folds and creases.

Now the land plunges, turns and falls away — a roller coaster speed run. Tearing past the Chattooga Whitewater Outfitters, a business owing its existence, in part, to Deliverance and the “land of nine-fingered people.” Straight ahead looms the river of legend, the wild, unforgiving Chattooga. This river surely is like no other.

Highway 76, once a mere line on a map, now lives in your mind. You can place your finger on 76’s thread-like presence and know that here hangs a deer head, here lies a sunken gunboat, and here is great fried chicken. Opera houses, mobile homes, charred mansions and monstrous tractors. The blending of past and present has made your 76 explorations delightfully unpredictable. And best of all, you spent little time on an interstate.

Learn more about Tom Poland, a Southern writer, and his work at www.tompoland.net. Email day-trip ideas to him at tompol@earthlink.net.

RIDGEWAY – The Town of Ridgeway will host its eighth annual Arts on the Ridge festival Friday, May 2 and Saturday, May 3 with the theme “Opening Doors to Arts & Antiques.”

“It’s lining up to be a really great show,” said Darlene Embleton, secretary of the Fairfield Council on the Arts.

Starting at 6 p.m. on Friday, there will be wine and live music at participating merchants. At the Century House, the evening will begin with the Meet the Artists Gala, a performance of piano music by Lee Dixon and the presentation of this year’s Friend of the Arts award, as well as the People’s Choice award.

While art will be displayed throughout the Century House, a special section of student art from the Richland 2 and Fairfield County school districts will be on display.

“Their work is always really extraordinary,” said Phyllis Gutierrez, chairwoman of the event, “and really shows us what incredible talent and instruction we have in our schools’ art departments.”

On Saturday, from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., the town-wide arts festival will include free musical performances and demonstrations of painting throughout the day. Artwork will be displayed on the lawn outside the Century House, and Antiques will be displayed in the Cotton Yard. Vendors will include trunk restoration, antique hats and attire, antique needle art, antique book appraisals and a display of antique cars.

All day on Saturday, a Meet the Authors forum will be held at the Ridgeway Library (across from the “World’s Smallest Police Station”) featuring writers Sandy Vassallo, Jean Ann Geist, Nikki Richardson, Tom Poland, McKendree Long, John Huffman, Ken Burger, Bebe Butler and Virginia Schafer. Winnsboro storyteller Frankie O’Neal will spin a few tales at 2 p.m.

Food will be available in the downtown area at The Old Town Hall Restaurant, The Country Store, Laura’s Tea Room and from vendors in the Cotton Yard.

“This festival brings all aspects of the Fairfield and Blythewood communities together – artists, schools and families,” said Arts Council president Virginia Lacy. “We’re looking forward to a great weekend.”