Lori has been found deceased. Prayers to her family and Sandy her best friend.
Find a grave linkSee the post on the FB pageOur search has come to an end. It was confirmed yesterday that Lori passed away December 2, 1994.
Lori Jane Eblin - Reaves - Richardson
born October 4, 1959, in Columbus, OH
died December 2, 1994, in Columbia SC
For nearly twenty-five years, my friend, Lori Eblin/Reaves/Richardson was missing. Her four children, mother, and siblings had no contact with her since approximately 1992. During our search, it was discovered that Lori married a second husband in February 1994. Due to other court records from July 1994, it appeared that Lori may have been a victim of domestic violence. This left many of us to wonder and worry about what could possibly have happened to her. How did she disappear without a trace?
Many of you have followed our search and help spread the word about Lori since we started her Facebook page in 2011. Her sister, Debbie, and I have made some special friends along the way. People who volunteered to make online posters, create age-progression photographs, share posts, and spend their own time doing online searches.
At times it seemed impossible. It seemed that we would never have answers. But, we would never give up. Last week, one more person stepped up to help with the search. Jason Hanna, from Greenville, SC had found the record on Findagrave.com for a Lori Reeves buried in the Richland County Cemetery, with the birth year as 1959 and the death year as 1994. He sent a message to Lori’s page to let us know. The last name was spelled differently but we immediately contacted the Richland County Sheriff’s Department investigator, Dottie Cronise. She said she would contact the Coroner’s office to find more information.
Jason volunteered to drive 1 ½ hours last Saturday to find the gravesite and take a photo. He called Lori’s sister, Debbie, as he entered the cemetery to find the marker. It did have the last name spelled as Reeves but we felt it had to be Lori. He took photographs and videos to show exactly where the gravesite was located. It was very touching that he also brought flowers to place on her grave.
Yesterday afternoon, Debbie received a phone call from Investigator Dottie Cronise and Bill Stevens from the Richland County Coroner's office. They confirmed that the gravesite Jason found was for Lori. She had died on December 2, 1994, in Columbia, SC. I am not sharing the details of how she died but there was no foul play involved.
Please keep Lori’s family in your prayers. Her four children were all under 18 when she went missing. It could not have been easy for them all these years to not know what happened to their mother. Lori’s mother passed away in 2007 without answers.
We are fortunate to end this search and with some sort of closure. I’m not sure what that means to all of you but today it still doesn’t seem possible to me that she left this earth at the young age of 35. I know Lori would want us to remember the happy times we spent with her.
Rest in peace, my dear friend.
Sandy
It's a miracle this even happened. The guy that sent Debbie and Sandy the message posted -Normally I'd put in quotes but it would be harder to read..
Wanted to take a minute here and write the story from my perspective. This may be a tad long winded and I apologize.
I was online Thursday, June 28th and remembered a case I had seen on The Official Unsolved Mysteries many years ago about a gentleman from my home county of Abbeville, SC named Walter Rice, who died, wasn't found for a year and had left a large amount of money behind. I found the Unsolved Mysteries wiki page and saw there were never any kin located for him. I looked through and saw the other South Carolina cases and came across Lori's case.
After reading it, I thought I'd just look through my resources, as it seemed odd that she could disappear without a trace. I searched through Ancestry, newspapers.com and findagrave and drew nothing important. I then decided to repeat the searches based on the name being Reeves, as I figured it would be a common mistake to make.
I found a Lori Reeves in the Richland County Cemetery, who had been documented by FindaGrave user "B.K" in 2017. The Year of Birth matched, the Year of Death was plausible, so, it certainly caught my attention.
I did some more searching trying to discredit the info I had found, as the last thing I wanted to do was instill false hope to the family. I was unable to prove that the Lori I found was NOT the right Lori. There was just enough there that, while I thought it was a long shot, I felt I had to mention it, even though I suspected that they would reply back that they knew about this other Lori and it was not the right one.
I was surprised to find that Debbie and Sandra did not know of this information. I contacted "B.K" to inquire about how that memorial came to be posted, thinking that maybe she had seen the case and created a memorial.
Friday morning, I received a response from "B.K" stating that she documented the grave standing in front of it, and had taken a picture, and would look for it. I informed Debbie and Sandra of this and informed them that if "B.K" hadn't located a photo first, I would make the trip to Columbia to see it for myself. We arranged to talk while I was there as I felt it important that if this did turn out to be Lori, the family should be in at least some way present. Still, at this point, I'm thinking it's a long shot.
Friday night, I found more information about the Richland County Cemetery, finding that it was the cemetery for unclaimed bodies and people who had donated their bodies to the USC Medical School, so, another shove towards believing that this might just be Lori.
I got to the cemetery on Saturday afternoon after a touch of adventure finding it, and called Debbie to describe hopefully, exactly what I was seeing, then entered the gates to search for Lori.
I've been volunteering for FindAGrave for over 2 years, and this was the fastest I've ever found a marker I was searching for. Within 2 minutes of entering the gates, I had located Lori's marker. We verified that it was, indeed, spelled Reeves, but that everything else matched up. I got off the phone with Debbie and started taking photos and videos of the grave and cemetery for them. All through this I am constantly telling Debbie and Sandra to please not get their hopes up. Even though I'm getting more and more confident that we may be on to something here, I don't want to be the cause for dashed hopes.
On Monday evening, I received the message from Debbie that the coroner had confirmed that the grave was, indeed, the correct Lori and that their search was finally over.
I am very proud to have played a small part in providing closure to the family and am at the same time sorry that the results were not the miracle that I'm sure they have been hoping and praying for.
I would ask that anyone reading this consider volunteering in their local area with findagrave and documenting and photographing cemeteries. The real hero in this case to me is "B.K", who told me that she just happened to go to the cemetery with her husband and documented a small number of the markers there. If she had not documented THIS marker, Lori would still be missing. All I did was put the information together and think a little outside the box.
Volunteering with findagrave is quite rewarding and while this certainly isn't a common outcome of it.. This story is evidence that it can happen. You could help find a missing person. You could help someone find a lost relative. You could help someone trace their family tree. You can help.
