Targeted And Killed By A Fake Uber Driver | The Case of Samantha Josephson

it was supposed to be a celebration that samantha and her friends would remember for years they were seniors at college getting ready to graduate yet little did they know that following the events that would unfold over this night one of them would lose their lives my name is adrian and in this video we're going to learn how one easy mistake when in the wrong hands could cost you your life if you're new to coffeehouse crime i post both solved and unsolved cases here on a weekly basis so if true crime is a kind of thing then please consider subscribing to the channel now it's very easy to eye up the wrong car while waiting for an uber especially if you've had a drink or three but what happened to samantha josephson when she made that same mistake back in march 2019 let's take a look and find out pull up a seat grab a coffee and sit back this is the case of samantha josephson [Music] let's talk about new jersey for a moment the states where samantha's story begins located towards the north-eastern corner of the u.s new jersey is a relatively small state but it's also home to population of almost nine million people with a multi-faceted economy new jersey is primarily driven by the pharmaceutical biotechnological financial and technological industries therefore awarding it to be the state with the highest density of scientists per square mile but it's also home to many folk who prefer the more down-to-earth way of life helping it in being a major exporter of blueberries cranberries spinach and peaches and this may be one of the oldest facts that i will ever give but did you know that 180 million years ago the shore of new jersey bordered with south africa smackbang in the middle of new jersey and also between the cities of new york and philadelphia lies a small town called princeton samantha was born here in the year 1998 to her mother marcy and her father seymour and at a very similar age to her own was her sister sydney the family of four would continue to live nearby in the small township of robbinsville there was nothing out of the ordinary for samantha or sydney as they grew up all things considered they were two happy sisters with a loving family and everyone loves the old family photos right moving forward several years down the road to the year of 2015 samantha attended the university of south carolina where she planned to major in political science and while there she grew into her own personality making many friends and falling in love with her boyfriend greg the two met in 2017 at five points a popular destination for students she was a member of the alpha gamma delta sorority and while at college she studied abroad in barcelona and visited other exciting destinations like madrid and paris even meeting her sister there on at least one occasion samantha was a very likable person i know it's cliche to say but her friends described her as someone who had a personality that would light up a room and her infectious personality was met with high aspirations she had plans to graduate in may of 2019 before attending drexel university to study international law but before drexel she still had some time left at the usc in the early year of 2019 she was a senior she had a few months left to complete her major and a few months left to make some more memories with her friends along the way you see time was ticking for samantha and her friends it was the middle of march and with final exams only a month away everyone was studying hard to get ahead but to flip the coin all being seniors they were only weeks away from going their own separate ways and so with that said they were looking to spend more time together while they could no need to worry about the boyfriend right now greg had actually graduated a year prior and was back in mount pleasant about two and a half hours away despite the distance greg and samantha were very close to one another both enjoying sports the two would often go to football games together and support the local team they would also visit the neighborhood where they first met called five points to eat and drink and even when they lived just a few minutes apart they would video chat with each other almost every day in greg's own words they did pretty much everything together and the distance created when greg moved home didn't stop their mutual energy either even now they'd talk every day and every night the date is march the 28th 2019 and following some bad news back at home samantha was in a fairly low mood for comfort she pleaded greg to come back to the usc to spend the night with her but unfortunately greg was already busy and they were going to see each other in a couple nights anyway so he suggested to samantha that maybe she should go out that night with friends to take her mind off the few things that were bothering her and greg was only a phone screen away from her anyway they could keep in contact with each other and text all night they even had an app installed on their phone called find my friends an app that lets friends track each other's locations for security samantha agreed and so on that note it's time for drinks at around 12 30 in the morning samantha and her friends arrived at the bird dog located in five points colombia the bird dog was one of the group's favorite places to visit in the night it was very popular with usc students music and cheap drinks would blend in to the busy chatter all around but while there friends noticed that samantha still wasn't in the happiest of moods she often kept to the corners of the bar and would message greg and others on her phone it seemed as if all efforts to take her mind off her worries were not working and later on in the night she accidentally became separated from her friends alone and upset samantha decided to call it quits on the evening and so just after 2 am she called greg to let him know that she was on her way home she lived a couple miles northwest on main street and an uber would ensure her safe return to her residence a surveillance camera picked up samantha on the phone to greg at 206 am she was waiting for her driver to arrive and so greg was keeping her virtual company and just as the minute turned to 12 minutes past two her apparent uber driver arrived he pulled into the disabled bay with his black chevrolet impala before the driver could even fully halt their vehicle samantha jumped into the bay and pulled the car's right row passenger door open she stepped in and after a couple seconds the door was shut seconds later the black chevrolet drives away surveillance cameras capturing it driving south south east on hardin street however almost straight away greg realized that something wasn't quite right with samantha's journey although they'd just been on the phone he was now tracking her using the find my friends app and in that time realized that she was traveling the total opposite direction from her home he tried to call her but she never answered he tried texting her but those messages remained unread he then tried to snapchat her those two were never looked at all in the meanwhile her location was going further and further away from her apartment samantha's location continued to travel southeast she reached the neighborhood of shandon and after that she reached rosewood and at 2 40 am 28 minutes since entering a supposed uber car samantha disappeared off the map greg reached out to samantha's housemates but they too hadn't heard from her maybe samantha did get home but by accident she left her phone in the back seat of the uber so with that ideology in mind greg and her friends all went to sleep expecting to hear from sam in the morning but when the morning came around that sudden silence from samantha would continue she had the morning shift at a place of work named the liberty tap room and when greg called to check if she had made it into a morning shift he learned that surprisingly she hadn't it was in this moment that serious concerns started to rise for greg and several of samantha's friends samantha was nowhere to be found she missed her work shift she'd even been tracked going in the opposite direction the night before something was seriously wrong with the entire situation by 2pm the group had filed missing persons report to local police and in the meantime greg and friends started to search on their own accord they called the hospitals and jails nearby but no matches were found and after that the surrounding area of five points was scanned but no clues there either next they focused on the bird dog greg who had friends working in the bar was allowed to go upstairs and check in on some of the surveillance footage and sure enough they would eventually spot samantha josephson outside shortly after 2am the search party took this footage to the local police department where they then gave their statements around samantha's disappearance however just after completing these statements the group were taken into a side room greg opened the door to see samantha's parents long time no see but the look on their faces described a very somber mood they were full with distraught and sadness the search for samantha josephson was already over she had been found dead just hours earlier 65 miles southeast from where she disappeared in colombia she had been viciously attacked her body riddled with more puncture wounds than any officer could count samantha's family friends and greg were all distraught and even worse what gregor just realized in that moment is what he'd virtually witnessed the night before was his own girlfriend's kidnapping and murder as the answer to the question of what happened to samantha josephson slowly settled in a new question emerged in its wake and that question was why why was samantha josephson dead i mean it looked like someone killed her but who would do such a thing what was their motive some early leads had already been made with thanks to greg and his friends they were already able to confirm her whereabouts the previous night obtaining cctv footage of her sliding into an uber car just after 2am and another friend had made a substantial discovery too upon breaking into a laptop and reading her emails it was discovered that the uber ride the night before had actually been cancelled by the driver samantha never showed up to the right vehicle it seemed that whatever the car samantha stepped into was not actually her driver she had inadvertently walked up to a stranger's car opened the door and stepped inside these clues were a great start for police from day one they had confirmed footage of a location a time a suspect a direction and most importantly a vehicle while the driver may not necessarily be responsible for her death they could at least help in retracing samantha's final steps but upon further analysis of this surveillance footage officers would actually find the same vehicle lurking around the area for quite some time in fact after spotting samantha on her own it actually made a u-turn before picking her up hmm strange things are now beginning to look a little premeditated therefore all cops in the nearby areas were told to be on the lookout for a black chevy impala and to profile any driver who was found in one and conveniently they wouldn't have to wait long it was at 3 23 am on the 30th of march a mere 26 hours after samantha's disappearance that a canine handler and police officer by the name of jeffrey kraft spotted a lookalike vehicle driving in front of him the location wasn't even a quarter of a mile south of the bird dog and so the vehicle was of great interest after a couple minutes of following the impala and eventually flashing his lights the driver took a turn down a residential road and pulled over and what followed next was well just watch this who's smoking the marijuana many here's the deal man i pulled your car over for the matches the suspect get your hand in your pocket what are you crazy get over here hey get over here come on run hey i'm gonna release the dog i can't i was just gonna see if he'll stop [Applause] bravo mike wearing a great sweatpants gray sweatshirt [Applause] guacamole doors blossom 500 block newness keep going it's gonna be on your left this guy didn't do a very good job at hiding however as only two minutes later colleagues responding to officer craft's alert would catch up and find the runaway upon his capture and then arrest after running away from police they would discover that his name was nathaniel roland and he had all the reason to worry born in 1995 nathaniel was 24 at the time he grew up in the nearby area in a place none other than new zion around 65 miles southeast of colombia he attended and studied at east clarendon school had an interest in basketball and graduated in 2012 and his coach described him as a great kid with a very involved family but things were not so positive in his more recent years scratching the surface he had several traffic violations mostly for not wearing a seat belt and he was also charged with an open container of alcohol back in february of 2018 but there was a much more serious offence looming under nathaniel's name on the 19th of october 2018 he was allegedly one of two men to abduct a woman by carjacking at a traffic light they assaulted her forced her to drive to an atm took all of her money and then forced her to drive to her own home where they then allegedly took items including a playstation 4 before fleeing just several hours later nathaniel then sold some of those items at a pawn shop but investigators were able to track those stolen items from the woman to the pawn shop to nathaniel he was arrested and then charged with obtaining goods under false pretences valued at two thousand dollars or less but he was not charged with alleged carjacking or kidnapping investigations from this point forward would unfortunately paint a very obvious story a large amount of blood was found not just in the trunk but all over the passenger seats too the blood was a harrowing enough detail but they would then also find samantha's mobile phone in the glove box of the car officially linking nathaniel and samantha together for the first time they would also find liquid bleach germicidal wipes and window cleaner expressing an attempt to clean the vehicle and when investigators searched nathaniel's house they would find more cleaning supplies and a two-bladed knife both of which had samantha's blood on them samantha's blood was also found on a bandana a sock and under nathanael's fingernails the evidence just kept building up nathaniel roland was charged with kidnapping murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime and on the 20th of july 2021 nathaniel rowland's trial began as you can expect things didn't go well for him [Music] during the trial prosecutors called 31 witnesses including the turkey hunter who found samantha's body nathaniel's former girlfriend and numerous state law enforcement division investigators and other experts cctv played in court would find nathaniel roland stalking the area of five points as early as 25 minutes before picking up samantha he was seen prowling the area numerous times even making new turns around the bird dog in search for a potential victim [Music] after spotting samantha alone and on her phone trying to get into the back of another vehicle which he mistook for haruba nathaniel whose impala was just two cars behind took the opportunity when samantha was finally in nathaniel activated the child locks meaning that the doors could only be opened from the outside therefore trapping samantha inside the vehicle this is a detail that we may never know but even if samantha had caught on to her kidnapping the second she shut the door no one would have been able to hear her screaming from the vehicle as on the other side of the glass loud music laughing and socializing ensued cctv captured nathaniel's vehicle traveling further and further southeast all in the meantime cell towers would ping both samantha's and nathaniel's phones together and while all of this was going on her boyfriend greg was watching her location travel further and further in the wrong direction [Music] turkey hunters would describe the location which the body was found she very likely died in the black chevy impala where she was then transported to the field that she was found in and dr thomas a forensic pathologist would reveal both the weapon and declare that over 120 wounds were identified on samantha's body she suffered severe wounds to her face neck shoulder torso back lungs legs and feet just hours after samantha's death nathaniel roland was caught on the surveillance cameras of two atms in the sumter area attempting to take cash out of samantha's debit cards out of all nine attempts however he was unsuccessful and left the area empty-handed both times during the entire trial nathaniel seemed to be taking notes at any given moment that he seemed uncomfortable and uncomfortable is exactly how he should have felt because on the 27th of july 2021 nathaniel roland was found guilty of kidnapping and murdering samantha josephson the jury deliberating for only a little over an hour to reach their verdict 2019 the state of south carolina versus nathaniel david roland it's an indictment for murder we the jury i'm independent guilty this is uh before person germany july 27 2021 turn number 130 were these your verdicts yes are they still your verdicts yes your number 469 were these your verdicts yes are they still your verdicts yes your number 169 were these your verdicts yes are they still your verdicts yes journalism 5 16 were these your verdicts yes are they still your birds yes your number 635 were these your verdicts yes are they still your burgers yes your finding out that your child has died is i can only imagine the worst kind of nightmare that a family can endure and if you specify that death as a sudden and abrupt murder the words just completely escaped my mouth devastation doesn't quite cut it samantha josephson by all counts seemed like a very happy and generous person she had a very bright future ahead of her with plans to attend drexel university and embark on a career that would positively influence people's lives and this future was coldly taken away from samantha by the hands of an opportunistic killer in which the motive seems to be nothing but financial gain offer students the one key mistake that samantha made here and let's be honest it happens to the best of us is that she got into the vehicle of an unknown driver without checking their identity first and by the widest of all margins usually this would only end in a shocked and rather disgruntled driver but in samantha's case this unfortunately cost her her life samantha's parents were beyond distraught when their daughter's life was ripped from their hands but through that pain they established the what's my name foundation with a mission to educate the world on rideshare safety if you're interested in learning more about this i'll leave a link in the description below a side note but i can't even begin to imagine the terror that greg must have felt throughout samantha's disappearance people use the find my friend's app out of anxiety over security and to witness the exact thing you're scared of happening happen in real time that must have been beyond overwhelming following the loss of the love of his life greg changed his direction to pursue a career as a criminal prosecution lawyer in honor of samantha josephson he wishes to make a difference to the world and deliver justice to victims inadvertently caught up with criminals samantha was eventually laid to rest at the perrineville jewish cemetery in new jersey and every year those touched by samantha's story attend a 5k run in honor to the young woman whose life was cut so tragically so abruptly and so unfairly thank you so much for watching another video today by coffee house crime if you found this video interesting or if you learned something new today then please remember to like the video and if you haven't subscribed yet then please do it helps me out have you ever been in a similar situation to samantha and what do you do to keep yourself safe in these kinds of situations please let me know in the comments below there's many more details to this case that i could have added but i think it's good to just wrap it up there thank you again so much for watching this video today and i'll be right here behind this camera waiting for you in the next one until that moment arrives though look after each other goodbye you

Channel: Coffeehouse Crime

Views: 1,370,644

Keywords: coffeehouse crime, samantha josephson, nathaniel rowland, true crime, uber killer, killer uber driver

Id: DgCPgqEhN9o

Length: 23min 56sec (1436 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 20 2021