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Title
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Blue Ridge Savings Bank Robbery and Triple Murder
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Description
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Details regarding the 2003 robbery of a bank that took three lives
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Text
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In 2002, the Blue Ridge Savings Bank, an Asheville-based corporation, announced their move to the Upstate. They opened three locations in search of a stabler economy. One of them was located on Frontage Road in Greer, at the Intersection of I-85 and SC-14.
On May 16, 2003, Sylvia Holtzclaw was the only teller in the bank; her replacement had been unable to come in, so she was working an extra shift. Eb Barnes, a professor at USC-Spartanburg (now USC-Upstate) and his wife Maggie were at the bank to transfer money into an IRA account. At approximately 1:00, Sylvia’s son David brought her lunch. Roughly 28 minutes later, Sylvia tripped an alarm, notifying police that a robbery was taking place. At 1:41, officers arrived on the scene, only to find Sylvia Holtzclaw, Eb Barnes, and Maggie Barnes dead in a utility room in the back.
That summer, a massive investigation began, one that included the resources of the Greer Police, the Greenville and Spartanburg County Sheriff's Offices, the State Law Enforcement Division, and the FBI. Starting with a 40-man team, they operated out of a former restaurant on Littlefield Road. They added phone lines, tables, and a whiteboard. Over 700 leads came in and were meticulously tracked, but many quickly turned into dead ends.
Police showed interest in a red Oldsmobile Alero, one that was dated to be a late 1990s-early 2000s model. Gas station footage caught it turning onto Frontage Road moments before the robbery, with the Barneses’ truck behind it. Additional footage caught it turning onto the Interstate minutes later. Over 100 Aleros in the Upstate were tracked, but none could be linked to the robbery.
In the summer of 2005, investigators seemed to have something tangible. Emmerson Wright had stolen an Oldsmobile Alero in Columbia two weeks prior to the robbery. He was announced as a “person of interest,” not a “suspect.” The only problem was that he could not be linked to Greer in any way: no address, no receipts, etc. In August 2005, he was pulled over in Georgia by law enforcement (whom he had evaded once before), stepped out of the car, and shot himself in the dead.
In 2006, a man named Lennell Dyches, who had recently robbed a Greenwood Credit Union, was investigated, but later cleared. The janitor was checked, but to no avail. A bank robbery in Nebraska that had claimed multiple lives was investigated, but no connection. A man charged with robbery in Spartanburg was looked into, but his alibi was airtight.
In 2010, the land that the bank sat on was sold to a family trust for over $380,000. Small banks were suffering from the recession of 2008-2009, and the government was closing many at the time. In 2011, the Blue Ridge in Greer was almost robbed again, but unsuccessfully. However, in October, the government closed down the entire Blue Ridge Savings Bank corporation, and its assets were transferred to the Bank of North Carolina. In November, the Greer Branch closed, and the building has been vacant ever since.
However, the case is far from closed. Answers are still sought after. The Barnes family sued the bank for failing to maintain proper security measures, and an undisclosed settlement was reached in 2004. David Holtzclaw, Sylvia’s son, continues to spread the word. He created a Facebook page in his mother’s honor, and also made a YouTube video about the robbery. Recently, a billboard about it was erected, allowing many to hear the plea for information. In 2023, officers announced their intentions to renew the push for answers about the senseless deaths of Sylvia Holtzclaw, Eb Barnes, and Maggie Barnes. As David Holtzclaw said, “There are so many unknowns. But somebody knows.”
