Missing Holly Hill woman’s kin continue search for answers

HOLLY HILL, S.C. (WIS) - The family of an Orangeburg County woman who has been missing for nearly five months believes they may have some answers in her disappearance, after the Coroner’s Office says human remains were discovered just down the road from where she was last seen.

Melissa Aguilar of Holly Hill was reported missing by an ex-boyfriend on Aug. 18, according to the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators believe she left a home on Fourwind Road after an argument.

Last week, family say they received a call from investigators indicating that remains were found less than a half mile from the house.

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After months of uncertainty, Aguilar’s youngest daughter Shanna Brown said the Orangeburg County Coroner’s Office has been their light in the darkness.

She specifically thanked Deputy Coroner Valencia Golden, who was at the scene Thursday.

“She’s (Golden’s) the light in our darkness, she’s putting everything together and she’s being there for us when nobody else is,” Brown said.

When the remains were discovered, the Coroner’s Office began investigating, and now has an outside forensic anthropologist studying them.

The Orangeburg County Coroner’s Office has not positively identified the remains, and could not provide a timeline on when that identification could happen.

Coroner Samuetta Marshall said the remains were scattered over “a large area,” around 30 feet.

The remains were located just off Fourwind Road, and not very deep in the woods, according to the Coroner’s Office.

Golden said some clothing had been found in the woods as well.

After getting the call last week, family , including Aguilar’s sister Sarah Shipman, went to look for themselves, and found more remains.

“We were bawling our eyes out,” Brown said. “I mean that could potentially be our mom, our sister.”

The anthropologist working to piece together the bones and to this point has gathered more than 90 percent of the skeletal remains, Golden said.

Despite this news, Brown said many questions still linger.

“I know that she (Aguilar) wouldn’t walk off,” she said. “Because the last conversation me and her had the day before this happened, we were talking about my sister’s wedding, and her dress that she had bought, and then we were talking about my wedding. So nothing’s adding up at all. And I just want answers, and I don’t think I’ll honestly ever have closure, but it’s worth a shot.”

Shanna said the anthropologist swabbed her and siblings for DNA.

The Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.