Antron Crawford was 37 years old when three masked people ambushed him outside his own home in Greenville County, shooting him near his car before he stumbled inside and later died. Nearly nine years later, no one has been arrested, and his family is renewing a public plea for whoever has information to finally come forward.
Crawford arrived at his home on Bethuel Church Road in Greenville County in September 2017 when the masked attackers were waiting for him, according to FOX Carolina News. He was shot near his car, ran inside and later died. His mother, Margaret Jones, had spoken with him just before it happened. “It wasn’t even 30 minutes later,” she said, describing the gap between their conversation and the moment she learned her son had been shot.
Jones has said a doctor later told her that Crawford was lost on the operating table. Nine years on, she still does not know who killed her son, and she still holds onto pictures of him as she waits for the case to break open.
A Family Remembers a Man of Many Talents
Crawford's grandmother, Mary Shands, remembered him as someone who could do it all. “He was a good barber. He was a good tattooer. He was a jack-of-all-trades,” she said, according to the same report. Those who knew him also recalled a laugh that lit up the room.
His sister, Kendra Young, now a registered nurse, has said Crawford protected her and even bought textbooks to help pay for her college education. Young has joined her mother and grandmother in renewing the family's plea for anyone with information to step forward, with Jones specifically asking witnesses to provide information rather than remain silent.
No Suspects Identified Despite Years of Investigation
Investigators have said they have not identified any suspects or persons of interest in the case. An earlier update on the investigation noted that a shoe believed to belong to one of the suspects was recovered and sent off for DNA testing, but the station reported that nothing was recovered from it. The Greenville County Coroner's Office ruled Crawford's manner of death a homicide, according to The Greenville News.
An obituary for Crawford listed his address as 21 Bethel Church Road, a spelling that differs slightly from the Bethuel Church Road location cited in recent reporting on the shooting.
Cold Case Unit Has Cracked Old Homicides Before
Investigators say they need people to come forward with new information, and that any new tip could help solve the case. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Greenville County Sheriff's Office, and tips can also be left anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC.
Greenville County's cold case efforts have produced results in the past. The county's Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit had solved nine homicide cases in two and a half years as of January 2023, according to The Greenville News. That stretch included a 22-year-old case in which investigators determined Roger Keith Hudgens was responsible for the 2000 shooting death of Sharon Anschutz, a dry-cleaning employee, even though Hudgens had died in 2008 from unrelated medical complications. The unit had begun re-interviewing old witnesses, identifying new ones and reexamining forensic evidence in that case back in the summer of 2022, the paper reported. For Crawford's family, that track record offers a reason to keep hoping that someone, somewhere, still remembers what happened on Bethuel Church Road in September 2017.
