The Curious Case of C.C.

Andrea Forbes was found murdered in her North Florence apartment in January 2017. Police investigators have been mum on many of the details in this case, as well as any motive. Private citizens have been more talkative.

It was no secret that Andrea had moved to this area after her boyfriend arrived. Both were said to be drug users. While trained as a welder, Andrea wasn't working at the time of her murder. Friends reported to us that her supplier was her boyfriend...who was in jail at the time of her death. Did a drug dealer kill Andrea? It's certainly a likely scenario that we're sure the FPD has investigated.

One of Andrea's boyfriend's best pals was a man we'll call C.C. The weekend that Andrea was murdered, C.C.'s grandmother reported him missing. After around three days, C.C. returned to his usual haunts. Periodically, C.C.'s name has appeared in arrest reports. According to one of our contacts at the FPD, C.C. is very well known to them.

Around ten days ago, C.C. was arrested in Florence on charges of public intoxication and later released. There were no outstanding warrants on which to hold C.C. Details get muddy at this point, but approximately three days ago there were reports that C.C. was found on Pine Street incapacitated due to a suicide attempt. Yes, C.C. was a very unhappy man, and the why and wherefore is extremely interesting.

By yesterday afternoon, C.C. was walking in a residential neighborhood off Pine Street when he spotted a woman sitting outside her home. He stopped and asked if he could sit on one of the lawn chairs to tie his shoelace. The unwitting woman replied in the affirmative, and C.C. sat...and sat...and sat. He showed no signs of leaving as he told her first that he was coming down off some meth. The woman, much too trusting in our opinion and not knowing who he was, went into her home and returned with a beer for her guest.

C.C. began to talk, much of his conversation revolving around guilt. He first mentioned Andrea, but the woman thought little of it. C.C. continued down Memory Lane, and the unwitting hostess began to feel the first pangs of unease. As C.C.'s story meandered, he then dropped his bombshell: His best friend had been Jose' D'Leon, the young man murdered on Wood Avenue about two months ago.

Had Jose' indeed been C.C.'s best friend? We have no idea, but the woman was now nearing panic mode. She excused herself for a few minutes and once inside her home had someone call police. 

Now our informant states the officer who responded to the call offered to arrest C.C. on charges of Public Intoxication or to take him to a local hospital for a mental evaluation. Assuming our friend at the FPD is correct, why wasn't C.C. evaluated when he allegedly attempted suicide two days before?

The unwilling hostess told the officer that she preferred for C.C. to be taken in for an evaluation. Was he? He wasn't listed earlier today as being a guest at our local Gray Bar Hilton. Perhaps more importantly, did he really know Jose' D'Leon, and have local investigators spoken to him about the case?

Hmmm. C.C. - Apparently it stands for curiouser and curiouser...

The Baptist Preacher Wore Green?

And when the radical priest
Come to get me released
We was all on the cover of Newsweek

Paul Simon


You should be thankful if you don't remember radical priests. If you're not, don't despair, you in Lexington have your radical Baptist preachers who stand up in board of education meetings avowing what a wonderful asset they would have been to the baseball team if only they'd been allowed. Just like Jesus would have done. 

Then we have the pedophile band leaders...nuff said. It seems good does triumph over evil at least some of the time. 

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From satire to a much more serious theme. Florence now has another unsolved murder. From what we gather, Jose' D'Leon had lived in the area for around three years. He had no family here. That's never an asset in a murder case...no one to care or no one local to hold anyone's feet to the fire.

Should we expect forensics to take a year? It's possible. Should we expect any arrestee to be given a sweetheart deal of only a year in jail? That's also possible.

There are even worse case scenarios, but we'll save those for later. In the mean time, pray for the Florence CID. Pray for the families of Jose' D'Leon and Andrea Forbes. They want answers. They should get them.

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We've recently been asked about the murder over a decade ago of Jermaine Willie Koger. He was murdered in his cousin's West Florence home the day before he was to testify in an assault case. FPD investigators said the two crimes weren't connected.

We can't answer our reader's question about the investigation, but perhaps one of you can. Was Willie Koger's killer ever caught? We can find no record of it, but sometimes old newspaper articles are elusive. We appreciate any information you can give us.