The Times and Democrat from Orangeburg, South Carolina • 7

fffjeStmcBttndiD Eurocrat Continued from 1A Orangeburg, S.C., Friday, July 15, 1994, Page 7A Caffey seen. She gave them her address. It has been a continual wall we keep hitting," Robert said. Then two of the SLED agents on the case talked about having difficulty finding the "white" car and Robert said he reminded them that the car was gray. "They never came to the family and asked questions.

And I wonder, did they even look at the autopsy report? They have had 22 years to do something. And they haven't," he said. "I'm very proud of him and all he has done," Mrs. Caffey said. "I'm also proud he can put this thing aside and spend enough time with his family.

His employers and co-workers have been very supportive just fantastic." Mrs. Caffey, an employee of the S.C. Highway Patrol in the license examination department, said they have been given time off to do some of the investigations that have turned up information not provided by the professionals. "It has been very frustrating, but he has patience and he has willpower. I admire him," she said.

"He could have said, vMy ther died when I was 15 and used that as an excuse not to do much with his life, but he didn't do it." "Yes," Robert said, "I have thought of quitting, giving up and letting it go. But I've decided. I'm not going to give it up. I will keep trying to get a strong investigation going, and maybe, with the "Unsolved Mysteries' involved, this will turn up something." "We've tried everything," Robert said, the frustration and strain of the long years of searching showing in his eyes. "We even went to a psychic on the urging of the Highway Patrol TV show peo- fle.

I don't believe in psychics but was ready to try anything." He said the tape made by the psychic is "off the wall, but it is another concept. It said there were three people involved. One, SA', is a young guy full of his own importance with a father who has some kind of a political background. "They were coming through this area after committing another murder, that of a young woman in the North Carolina area. Then person B' was the hit man.

He was from the New Jersey area and the kind that just doesn't care what he does. The other man, 'C, is a young man that worked for the family of Subject A. "The psychic said Roy stopped the patrol car. He didn't know Subject A personally, but he knew of him and recognized him. So when Roy stopped the car, he could have seen and identified them as being suspects," Robert said.

"When Roy first saw the car, he was near the hospital. He left the hospital and went up Carolina (this was at the old hospital on Carolina Avenue) at a high rate of speed, following the car. They went up Boulevard and onto St. Matthews Road at a high rate of speed and then out onto 1-26," he said. "That, anyway, has been verified, that my father did have a high speed chase after a car and followed it onto the Interstate." Robert said radio transmissions for that night have never been released and he doesn't know whether his father notified communications at the Highway Patrol that he had stopped the car and what the plate number was.

As a veteran patrolman, Caffey would, logically, have called in the license plate number of a car he was following at that speed. He placed. Tve never been able to get them," Robert said. In February, the state highway patrol wrote to the television show "Real Stories of the Highway Patrol" and asked them to review the case. Show executives were told that the SCHP even has a 1972 restored patrol vehicle, like the one Roy Caffey was driving that October night.

It began to look as though this might work out, but then the information began drying up. They scheduled a May 23 shooting of the episode in Orangeburg, but then called it off because of problems in getting information from agencies. There were so many areas that the general public was not aware of at the time of the crime and Robert said there were weird twists in the case. For one thing, most people never knew that his father was alive for a brief time after he reached the hospital. Was he unconscious all that time? Probably, Robert said, but added that Stewart admitted that nobody, no official, was there to check on what he might have been able to tell them about his attack.

"It was total confusion," he said. "Nobody knew what to do and nobody took charge. A trooper stayed at the scene all night, until SLED could get to the scene the next day." "The people who did this thing are going to have to meet their maker upstairs," said Anne Caffey, Robert's wife. "They are not going to totally get away with it, and that helps. But we would like to know the answers." "I believe in God," Robert affirmed.

"I really don't care who they (the murderers) are. I just want to know. I don't even care what happens to them. What I really want to know is why!" There are all kinds of scenarios about the "why" of the murder. "It seems like such an overkill for a 'minor' traffic violation," Mrs.

Caffey said. "If he just stopped them for that" also might have called for backup or given other information. The tape from the communications room has never been released and may no longer exist, Robert said He also questions several other areas of what he calls "the botched investigation." "The autopsy report, which I had a terrible time obtaining a copy of, indicates there were three bullets. One in the upper right leg from a bullet and two larger bullet wounds on each side of the face. These bullets, were through the face, left shoulder and neck and in the body into the ribs and vertebra." The bullets were given to a SLED agent but, Robert said, he later heard a member of SLED refer to them as .357 Magnum slugs.

He said it seems that every time they take one step forward in the investigation they "hit a stone wall." He said one patrolman has tried to get evidence but said, "Every time he tried to get information, he hits a stone wall." He did not name the officer. He said another thing puzzles him. "When Roy Caffey was killed there was a mix up of the location where he was killed. Not because they didn't want to get to him as soon as possible, but they didn't know where it was. The psychic said this, too, and it is true.

The truck driver who found Roy's body didn't know where he was and could not relay the exact location and this resulted in confusion. This the psychic said, and this is true. "Then a woman from Sum-merville was driving by and saw the car and she stopped to see if she could help. That woman never has been contacted, or questioned about what she may have (All Styles ol Beaotlful Braids" For Children, Adults, Professionals Call Notv For Appt. I 534-8657 or 531-3926 I Mon.Sun.

Continued from Page 1 A answers for over nearly 22 years. He said he has been less successful in getting response from law enforcement agencies in the state and from legislators. Department of Public Safety spokesman Lou Fontana told The Times Democrat on Monday that they have received a commitment from the "Unsolved Mysteries" to film a segment on the Caffey murder. Robert Caffey said DPS Director Boykin Rose and his staff have been most supportive and have encouraged his efforts to get stronger investigative efforts underway. "I could not be happier about the news," Rose said, after learning of the TV show's commitment.

"I have had my staff put a lot of effort into getting this kind of coverage to get it (the Caffey case) solved because Robert Caffey deserves to know who killed his father. This won't take away the pain, but it could help him sleep at night that would mean a lot to me," he said. State Law Enforcement Division Chief Robert Stewart was out of town for the week and could not be reached for comment. In a telephone interview Tuesday with Matt Kleinman, an executive with the TV program, Klein-man said "Unsolved Mysteries" will be investigating the Orangeburg area for locations and he said whether they decide to film the show here will depend on several things. "We will look into locations and into the background of the story.

We will want to get more information about some "recent evidence' uncovered. Also, we may film somewhere other than Orangeburg, depending on the costs involved," he said. Kleinman said they hope for cooperation from the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office, SLED -which is the main agency investigating Caffey's murder and other law enforcement agencies who might have information. Kleinman was waiting for a call from Sheriff C.R. Smith he said.

"New information" was recently uncovered by the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office, Smith announced in a statement Sunday and on Jones Intercable's new program, "Orangeburg's Most Wanted." "Evidence has been reviewed in the case with new scientific techniques not available 22 years ago," the sheriff told The after meetings of a task force of agents from SLED and the sheriff's office. "New information has put a fresh focus to the inquiry into who actually killed Trooper Caffey," Smith said. Exactly what the "new information" consists of has not yet been released. Robert was only 15 at the time of his father's death and his mother died just three years later, leaving the young Caffey an orphan. But that didn stop him from continuing to nudge and query SLED and other agencies, demanding more action.

He says he has "never stopped working to find the killer or killers, who murdered my father." But he got on with his life. He finished college, married and recently was made a vice president at First National Bank of Orangeburg. Important though this successful career may be, Robert has never stepped back from his attempts to get justice for his father, a man he admired and still misses. "I have written to about everyone who could help get this inves-. tigation back on track," he said.

Robert said he has talked with SLED Chief Robert Stewart and with his SLED spokesman Hugh Munn. But while Munn was supportive and set up a meeting for Caffey with Stewart, Caffey said Stewart has not been very forthcoming. He did tell Caffey that he would assign the case to another investigator. On June 10, 1994, Robert said he wrote to Gov. Carroll Campbell.

"I wrote him that, "This case has been poorly investigated and botched from the very and it has," Caffey said. He also has sent copies to Sen. Strom Thurmond, U.S. Rep. Floyd Spence, state DPS Director Boykin Rose, Sen.

Ernest F. Rollings and others. He said while he has spoken to Stewart about getting SLED to do a more intensive investigation and has been assured they are concerned, "I have nothing on paper from SLED, nothing whatsoever." In many of the letters of response he received, the legislators and law enforcement agency heads urged him to contact "Unsolved Mysteries." In 1982, Robert said he began looking into the possibility of getting more media interest. "Crimestoppers" of Columbia did a story on the case in 1982, with the S.C. Highway Patrol involved.

"That first attempt failed due to the difficulty in getting any records, or support, from SLED," Robert said. "They (SLED) appear to want to do something, but then they don't do anything. They have had 21 years to do more on this case." Some of the unanswered questions about the case might be answered, he said, if he had been able to obtain tapes and files that SLED now says were lost or mis- 26" Solid i Cast Brass Special $5995 touch control 1 $Q95 ,1 Federal officials urge elderly to take shots vs. pneumonia fee? BstXIa? EtecrOR ilJiMliM mffitef I wmmmm i mm i 1 mm I mmmmimF WASHINGTON (AP) Only about one in five elderly Americans have been inoculated against pneumococcal pneumonia, even though the shots protect against one of the most common killers of people over age 65. Federal health officials announced a new campaign Thursday to encourage older Americans to get immunization injections against the disease, which kills 40,000 elderly Americans a year.

The National Institute on Aging said this type of pneumonia causes about 400,000 hospitalizations a year and is the third most common killer of the aged. And yet, said Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the institute, J8hw Willi Larry" immunization shots against pneumococcal pneumonia are safe and effective and have been available for years. Hodes said only 20 percent of Americans who are at risk of developing pneumococcal pneumonia, mostly the elderly, have gotten their shots. The agency hopes to increase that to about 60 percent.

The shots do not protect against all types of pneumonia, but they do protect against the most common, he said Experts said since the immunization was developed 15 years ago, the pneumococcal vaccine has been shown to protect against the disease for up to nine years. Yesterday's diamonds- Today's new jewel. TfcC ok) Kmart Orangeburg, S.C. 803-534-3403 6 PM Sat. 10 AM 1 PM 71 lAfe 1 ftfWf DIKITJHT 3 We offer a very unique shopping experience, a great selection of Nissan, Oldsmobile Cadillac Cars Trucks, knowledgeable sales people that are noj high pressure, a free oil change for as long as your new car warranty is In effect selection savings that are worth the drive.

Carolina Jewelers Larry Beener 1520 Wingate Si Next to Gemologist-Appraiser Mon. Fri. 9 AM.