Shakeima Ann Cabbagestalk, 10: Missing From South Carolina Since 1993
Her remains have never been located.
Shirley Harmon was worried. Her 10-year-old daughter, Shakeima Ann Cabbagestalk, didn't come home, so she called her mother, Clara Cabbagestalk, to check if the young girl had spent the night at her grandmother's house.
When Clara told her no, Shirley contacted the authorities. Clara said the last time she saw Shakeima was on July 22, 1993, when Shakeima was playing in her front yard. Clara would later testify that when she looked outside to check on Shakeima, she found her granddaughter gone.
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The distraught Shirley spoke with the police while Clara asked her daughter’s husband, Sam Harmon, about the last time he saw Shakeima. Clara would tell a courtroom that Harmon’s response was troubling.
“I ain’t hurt Shakeima. I love her just like Shirley do,” Clara testified Harmon told her.
When questioned by police, Harmon stated that on July 22, he and Shakeima went to the Turning Point Grocery store in their hometown of Dillon, South Carolina. Harmon asserted that he had left his stepdaughter at the store with her brother and hadn’t seen or heard from her since then. Investigators believed Harmon was the last person to see her alive.
Twelve years later, in 2005, prosecutors officially charged Sam Harmon with kidnapping, criminal sexual conduct with a minor, and murder. During their lengthy investigation, police learned that a year prior to her disappearance, Shakeima Ann Cabbagestalk had accused her stepfather of touching her inappropriately.
The Department of Social Services conducted an investigation, but it’s reported that they decided not to move forward because Shakeima’s account of what happened changed multiple times.
Harmon’s trial began in 2008, and according to WBMF News, prosecutors believed that Harmon’s motivation for murdering his stepdaughter was due to the molestation accusations. Although prosecutors initially sought the death penalty, they eventually took the criminal sexual conduct charge off the table and pursued a life sentence in prison. During the trial, Shakeima’s uncle testified that Harmon shared he knew how to dispose of a dead body just weeks after the 10-year-old’s disappearance.
It must be noted that Shakeima’s remains have never been located, there has never been physical evidence to suggest that Shakeima is deceased, and Harmon has always denied involvement in her disappearance. The Charley Project reports that Harmon was convicted of kidnapping but acquitted of murder and became eligible for parole in 2011.
Some of Shakeima’s relatives reportedly believe that she is still alive.
Shakeima Ann Cabbagestalk: What To Know
At the time of her disappearance, Shakeima Ann Cabbagestalk stood 3 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 65 pounds. She had black/brown hair and brown eyes. She also reportedly has a mole near the corner of her mouth and another below her neck. Shakeima has a double tooth on the upper side of her mouth.
Case Number: 774-93
Agency: Dillon Police Department
Phone: (843) 841-3707
Email:
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