CHESTER, S.C. — One day after burying 13-year-old Daryl Lowry, family members and their attorney are demanding answers about how the Chester County teen ended up nearly 100 miles from home in foster care before investigators say two older boys stabbed and drowned him.
The family wants transparency in the investigation.
The family attorney said on Friday that he wants the Department of Social Services and other agencies to answer questions.
They want to know why the 13-year-old was placed in foster care so far away from family who could have cared for him here in Chester County.
“From the procession all the way to the church, I don’t think there was a dry eye there. I’ve never seen such sadness before,” said the victim’s cousin, Sherry McNeill, about the service. “It was very hard. It was very sad.”
The attorney said Lowry was in a foster home in McCormick County, South Carolina, near Strom Thurmond Lake.
State police said Lowry was at a boat dock when he got into a physical fight with two older boys, who stabbed and drowned him.
“I know from what I’ve seen so far that the children were left unsupervised at the time this happened,” said attorney Tyler Bailey. “This is at a foster home where you know that there may be children who are going through certain things. It seems like common sense for there to be supervision.”
Bailey said he’s launched an independent investigation asking the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the local sheriff’s office, and DSS for more on the history of the foster family and for details on how it happened.
“All information regarding why Daryl was placed specifically at this location,” Bailey said. “His home is Chester. McCormick (County) is a little bit away from here. And so, there’s likely some other foster homes that would have been in between here and there.”
He wouldn’t comment on why Lowry was in state custody but said the teen had family members in Chester, who would have been willing to help.
The family attorney said that he believes Lowry was taken into custody July 16. He died on July 20. He said the placement was supposed to be temporary, and Lowry was supposed to be back in Chester in time to start the eighth grade on Monday.
Last week, Channel 9 reported that McCormick County Council Chairman Bernard Hamby seemed to suggest that Lowry was in his custody at the time of this incident.
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