NEWBERRY, S.C. (WIS) – Six years after a Newberry County woman was shot while walking home, her family says the unanswered questions still haunt them.
40-year-old Sharonda Sims was ambushed, shot and killed on Drayton Street in the Helena community on September 17, 2019.
Nearby surveillance video shows muzzle flashes and faint outlines of people, but investigators with the Newberry County Sheriff’s Office have not identified a suspect.
The case remains a mystery.
“Six years seems like one hundred,” Martha Sims, Sharonda’s mother, said on Thursday.
Sharonda’s parents say the pain has been excruciating as they seek answers in their daughter’s cold case.
Martha Sims said justice would be like a “bright light” in their lives.
“If it was not for God’s grace, there’s no way we would’ve made it this far,” she said.
Sharonda’s father, Willie Sims Jr., said the pain is as sharp as ever.
“The last six years have been hard,” he said. “It seems like to me my feeling it’s just as bad or even worse because we still want to try to get justice for my daughter.”
The family described Sims as a free spirit who loved to laugh and joke, and a devoted mother whose three children now visit her grave in her absence.
The Sheriff’s Office has interviewed more than 50 people and asked for help from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the FBI and other federal agencies to enhance that security video.
Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster said the case is active, but stalled.
“We’re pretty much at a stalemate right now,” he said.
The sheriff believes Sharonda’s murder could be tied to a string of drive-by shootings in the area at that time.
He is confident that someone in the community knows something, but is not talking.
“It just makes sense as a human being to come forward and tell us what they know and tell us what they’ve heard so that we can put this to rest and let this family have some peace,” he said
Martha Sims has forgiven her daughter’s killer, but urges that person to come forward.
“We forgive you, yet we need closure,” she said. “In forgiving you, you need to come forward.”
Martha Sims said Sharonda’s spirit still lingers where she was killed.
“Sometimes I leave home the way that Sharonda was walking that night, and I will go two or three streets over so I don’t have to go the route that she walked,” she said. “And some days I want to drive it and think. Sometimes I pass by the spot where she was murdered, and it’s like something jumps into my chest and I feel like that’s my child roaming because she can’t rest.”
Sharonda’s parents will not rest until there is an arrest.
“It’s not going to die,” Willie Sims Jr. said. “It’s going to stay alive. And we’re going to make it alive and keep it alive until we get it solved.”
Foster said his office continues to work the case weekly and hopes technology will one day deliver answers for the Sims family.
The family’s hope remains that those answers will come.
“I pray all the time and I ask the Lord, please don’t let me die without knowing who murdered my child,” Martha Sims said. “That is the utmost importance to me.”
The Sheriff’s Office has persons of interest, but no formal suspects.
Anyone with information about Sharonda’s murder is asked to contact the Newberry County Sheriff’s Office directly or CrimeStoppers.
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