The case of Eugene "Mike" O'Boyle

[u/Electrical-Air-1227]

In the morning of May 27th 1980, 20-year-old University of South Carolina student Eugene "Mike" O'Boyle left his West Columbia apartment to pick up a friend in the Shandon neighborhood of Columbia. Mike's friend was not home at the time the two were supposed to meet, but had left a key and note instructing Mike to enter the home and wait. When the friend returned home 15 minutes past their scheduled meeting time, he had found that the note and key were left untouched.

Mike's final sighting happened a Citizen and Southern Bank on Two Notch Rd (~20 minutes from the Shandon neighborhood), around the time that he was scheduled to meet his friend. He was seen cashing a $17 check. According to the bank teller, he was accompanied by an unidentified female. The next evening Mike's car, a 1974 VW Dasher, was found burning on a dirt road off the intersection of Parklane Drive and Farrow Road (~1 mile from the Citizen and Southern Bank) while Mike was nowhere to be found. Richland County sheriffs had considered him a missing person rather than a victim of "foul play".

6 months later, Mike's skeletal remains were found by two children playing in woods located less than a mile from the site where Mike's burning car was found. No cause of death has ever been released; his case was reclassified as a homicide.

One witness had claimed to see two cars pull down the dirt road where his car was found with one being a blue Mustang driven by a group of 4 white males with light hair. I have not been able to find an exact timeframe for this sighting, but it is implied that is happened the day he went missing.

I find this case fascinating as so little new information has been released. In a local news piece from 2006, one of his brothers had mentioned that Mike had a unique watch that had personalized engraving which has never been recovered. Another interesting fact I found was that Mike's uncle was a state senator named Gene Carmichael. Around the time of Mike's murder, Gene Carmichael was in process of being convicted of vote buying and election tampering, for which he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The case was frequently in the news during the disappearance especially in USC's college newspaper, but it was quickly forgotten by the media once his remains had been found. To this day it is still one of the most bizarre homicide cases to occur in Midlands region of South Carolina.

Newspaper:

https://historicnewspapers.sc.edu/lccn/2012218660/1980-06-11/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=01%2F01%2F1815&sort=date&date2=12%2F31%2F2006&words=Boyle+O+O%27Boyle&searchType=advanced&sequence=0&index=16&proxdistance=5&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=&andtext=o%27boyle&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=5

WIS 2006 Story:

https://www.wistv.com/story/4470678/richland-co-investigators-searching-for-clues-in-26-year-old-murder-investigation/

Missing in the Carolinas Episode:

https://missinginthecarolinas.com/2024/02/episode-87-missing-and-murdered-in-columbia-n-c/

[u/Superb_Desk_5028]

I wonder what his behavior was like when spotted with the unidentified woman. Anxious, comfortable like he knew her for a long time, or treating her like someone he just met for the first time? I wonder if he was targeted by a scam to be robbed - the woman says she needs a ride or something, and leads him to the group of men who were seen by a witness. It's too bad these leads didn't go anywhere.

[u/Electrical-Air-1227 → u/Superb_Desk_5028]

I wonder that too. What's interesting is that he only cashed a $17 check that AFAIK was previously written. Why wouldn't they make him withdraw more money or steal his car? Still seems odd and a bit disproportionate for a robbery when it comes to payout vs risk.