When police Capt. James Myers and his soon-to-be wife Amy woke up on a perfect summer morning after a night of camping, they looked in wonder at their newly acquired piece of heaven outside of Columbia, South Carolina.
“We awoke to mist rising off the pond − our pond − the pond where our dreams would become a reality,” Amy recalled, according to an archived story in The Times and Democrat.
The next year, the couple got married just steps away from that same pond. They would have less than two more years together before the unthinkable happened.
While visiting a shed on the property, at the very spot Myers had gotten married, a Virginia man in the middle of a violent multi-state crime spree ambushed the 56-year-old. Mikal Mahdi shot Myers nine times and set him on fire before stealing his police truck and multiple guns, court records say.
Myers’ wife, Amy Tripp Myers, cried as she testified at Mahdi’s trial, according to The Times and Democrat.
“I died that night and haven’t been the same person since,” she said.
Now more than 20 years later, Mahdi is set to be executed by firing squad in South Carolina on Friday. The execution would make him only the second inmate to die by firing squad in modern history in the state and only the fifth in the U.S. since 1977.
As Mahdi’s execution approaches, USA TODAY is looking back at who Myers was and what made him special.
Who was Capt. James Myers?
Born in the South Carolina city of Orangeburg, just southwest of Columbia, Myers − who went by Jim − began his career with the city’s fire department in 1974 before he eventually became a police captain for the Orangeburg Public Safety Department, according to his obituary.
“His quiet leadership by positive example earned the admiration and respect of his superiors, and those who served under him,” the obituary said. “Captain Myers provided ‘service above self’ to the Orangeburg community for over a quarter of a century.”
As “an avid outdoorsman,” the obituary continued, Myers loved fishing, hunting, scuba diving.
“He was the kind of man who could build your house and plant your food,” his longtime colleague and friend, Capt. Mike Adams testified, according to The Times and Democrat. “He was full of knowledge.”
As a treat for his 53rd birthday, Myers decided to buy a piece of farmland that he worked hard to make his own.
In 2002, the day after Valentine’s Day, Myers and Amy Tripp Myers were celebrating their new, elaborate shed.
“Jim and I looked at the newly raised walls of our shed, hugged each other and, like giddy children full of hope, scratched our names in the freshly poured concrete, just a few feet from the spot where Jim took his last breath,” she testified at his trial, the newspaper said.
In addition to leaving behind his wife, Myers was survived by a daughter, a granddaughter, a sister and his father, among others.
What happened to Capt. James Myers?
On July 14, 2004, Mahdi − then just 21 years old − began a crime spree that spanned four states and included two murders.
Mahdi stole a neighbor’s gun and station wagon in his home state of Virginia and headed to North Carolina, where he fatally shot gas station clerk Christopher Jason Boggs. Mahdi then went to South Carolina, carjacked a man in downtown Columbia and drove 35 minutes away to a Calhoun County gas station, where he spent at least 45 minutes struggling to get gas with a rejected credit card.
A store clerk called police, prompting Mahdi to flee and ditch the car. Shortly after, Mahdi arrived at Myers’ farm. Mahdi broke into Myers’ shed, where he found guns and laid in wait for the 56-year-old, who had been at the beach that day celebrating the birthdays of his wife, sister and daughter, court records say.
When Myers arrived at the shed, Mahdi attacked, shooting him nine times, pouring diesel fuel on his body and setting him on fire before stealing his police truck and multiple guns, court records say.
“I found the love of my life, my soulmate, the partner that my life revolved around, lifeless, lying in a pool of blood and his body burned by someone who didn’t even know him,” Amy Myers testified through tears. “As I screamed those blood-curdling screams of pain and anguish, I instantly knew that the man with whom I had just spent the last six years of my life dreaming of a beautiful future was gone like a vapor.”
In a letter written by Mahdi and shared by his attorneys, the inmate wrote: “I’m guilty as hell … What I’ve done is irredeemable.”
A widow grieves
About a year after her husband’s murder, Amy Tripp Myers recalled how the last time she saw her husband alive was after a nap following their big beach trip.
“It was like he didn’t want to get out of bed,” she told The Times and Democrat in an interview, according to an archived news story. “He just wanted to lay there and kiss and hold me … That was the last time that he told me that he loved me.”
That night is when she found his body.
As for their beautiful farm land where the couple got married, Amy Myers testified that it became a symbol of her pain.
“I have yet to walk that once-familiar ground between the pond and the shed without my heart tearing apart, missing Jim and thinking about all of our unfulfilled dreams,” she said at Mahdi’s trial. “We didn’t have enough time together.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: South Carolina officer, new wife had big dreams before his murder
The post Murdered South Carolina officer, new wife had big dreams on land where he was killed appeared first on USA TODAY.
