Kershaw, South Carolina is a small town in Lancaster County. With a population of just under 2,000, not much happens without everyone hearing about it.
In 1983, it was no different.
“Everybody knew everybody, Everybody kind of knew everything about everybody,” Marty Sims told Dateline.
Back in May 1983, Marty was a senior at Kershaw’s Andrew Jackson High School. He and classmate Russell Anthony were student bus drivers. “We drove the school bus and, you know, took kids to and from school,” he said. “Russell was just a really nice guy. Got along with everybody. Never had any issue with anybody.”
That’s why what happened during the early morning hours of May 15, 1983, was so shocking.
Russell picked up his on-and-off girlfriend, Lisa Thompson, at her family’s home in Kershaw the night before. They drove off in his Chevrolet Malibu sedan.
Around 2 a.m. on May 15, that same Chevy Malibu was found engulfed in flames in the neighboring town of Heath Springs. “They put the car out, the fire department came,” Marty recalled. “And then they found the body.”
Two bodies. Russell Anthony and Lisa Thompson. They had been murdered.
“I’ll never believe it was just some random act of violence. Things like that just don’t happen in a rural area like that,” Marty said. “It was intentionally directed at these two people.”
But who would want to kill Russell and Lisa?
Lisa Thompson
Lisa was born and raised in Kershaw. One of four siblings, Lisa was the only girl. “She was just the ideal sister that anyone would want to have,” younger brother Terry Thompson told Dateline. The family order went Bradford, Lisa, Rodney, and Terry. “She definitely protected us,” Terry said. “Especially me and Rodney because we were younger than her.”
Lisa was not just a good sister, she was involved in her community, as well. “She was the secretary for our Sunday school in our church,” he said. “She was a caregiver.”
But life was not all work for Lisa. Terry said his sister also enjoyed letting loose. As a teen in the ‘80s, Lisa’s favorite artists were always on repeat. “She loved Michael Jackson and American Bandstand and Soul Train,” Terry recalled. “Prince, Dionne Warwick. I mean, of course, Morris Day.”
By May 1983, Lisa was finishing up her junior year at Andrew Jackson High School. Terry was 15 at the time. “For someone not to play sports, I would say she was very popular,” Terry said. “She actually won Miss Junior. I remember her telling me, ‘When you come to high school, you gotta dress better. ‘Cause I don’t want you making me embarrassed,’” he said with a laugh.
Lisa got together with Russell Anthony in high school. Terry told Dateline the two dated on and off for a few years but by Lisa’s junior year, they were off. “He was a well-dressed young man,” Terry said of Russell. “Had one of the nicest cars around Kershaw.”
Russell drove a 1974 Chevrolet Malibu sedan. The same car he picked Lisa up in on May 14, 1983.
Terry remembers that night well. “She had work, that was a Saturday,” he recalled. “She came home to change. She said, ‘Bye, I’ll see y’all in a bit and everything.”
Lisa left the house and got into a car that had just pulled up to their driveway. “We thought that it was one of her friends — one of her girlfriends coming to pick her up,” Terry said.
But when the car started up to pull off, Terry said the family knew it was Russell. “He had loud pipes on his car,” Terry recalled. “That’s when we knew that was his car and she had got in the car with him.”
Terry said their mother was confused because Lisa and Russell were supposed to be broken up. “That’s when my mom said, ‘I’m gonna talk to her when they get back,’” he said. “I just remember my mom saying that and we thought nothing of it.”
Lisa and her mother would never have that conversation.
The Fire
During the early morning hours of May 15, the phone rang in the Thompson household. A car was on fire in Heath Springs — a nearby town in Lancaster County — that matched the description of Russell Anthony’s car. “I remember us getting a call and it was about a car being burnt,” Terry told Dateline. He said he isn’t sure who the caller was, but remembers his mother telling him and his siblings to come with her. “We actually got in the car and went to Heath Springs.”
The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office was already at the scene. Sheriff Barry Faile told Dateline in an email that around 2 a.m., a passerby alerted an off-duty officer about the fire. A deputy responded and “found the car on fire off the street on a vacant lot.”
The sheriff went on to say that fire personnel responded to the scene and put the fire out.
Terry, his siblings, and their mother arrived at the scene just as that was happening. As they pulled up, they could see the smoke ahead of them. “We wasn’t able to get near the car because they were just putting the car out,” Terry recalled. But they could see that it was Russell’s car “because of all of the fire trucks and the lighting around it.”
Terry told Dateline that because they couldn’t get any closer, they turned around and went home — hoping that somehow Lisa wasn’t in the car. “We were hoping that, you know, she’s going to walk through the door,” he said. “Which never happened.”
Later that day, it was confirmed: Lisa had been in the car. According to Sheriff Faile, she was in the front passenger seat. She had been shot. No gun was present at the scene.
“We really didn’t want to believe it. My mom was devasted,” Terry told Dateline. “She was trying to hold her composure as much as she could.”
Terry told Dateline Russell’s body wasn’t found until hours later. “So, you know, we’re thinking he’s on the run,” he recalled. But that wasn’t the case. “His body was still in the trunk. They hadn’t opened the trunk yet.”
Sheriff Faile told Dateline it was determined that Russell died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
“So, you know, it was a possibility that he could have lived. He just died of smoke inhalation,” Terry said. “It was, of course, a nightmare.”
Theories
The news of Lisa and Russell’s deaths shook Lancaster County. Classmate, Marty Sims, recalls hearing the news. “I think people were really concerned about the fact that, you know, something happened and it seemed — a motive that was personal,” he said. “It was intentionally directed at these two people for some reason.”
Terry told Dateline his family never knew who would want to harm Lisa or Russell. “I knew no one that would be that angry to kill my sister,” he said.
Sheriff Faile told Dateline that “early on, a person of interest was identified” but “the evidence developed was insufficient to establish probable cause” to charge that person with the murders.
Terry said he has heard stories about possible persons of interest over the years, although he isn’t sure how much truth there is to them. He told Dateline that a witness once claimed they saw a person come out of a convenience store in Lancaster County and get into Russell’s car on the night of the murders. “They saw somebody get in the car with them and they had got a gas jug,” he recalled. “I guess the detectives have questioned a couple of people and the stories they told.”
According to Sheriff Faile, “over the years and recently, many interviews have been conducted of persons of interest, potential witnesses, and family members and acquaintances” of Russell and Lisa.
The sheriff told Dateline that new persons of interest have recently been discovered and are currently being investigated. He added that the most recent information developed is “very promising.”
“We are committed to seeing this investigation to its conclusion and solving this case,” the sheriff wrote. “We hope to be able to provide definitive answers to the families of Ms. Thompson and Mr. Anthony about what happened to their loved ones.”
Former classmate Marty Sims is hoping Lisa and Russell’s family will get answers, too. He said all of Lisa and Russell’s former classmates are. “I think there’s people out there that know things,” Marty said. “There might be some people willing to say things now, who were afraid to say things then.”
Moving forward
It’s a long time to wait for answers, 41 years. Terry Thompson said the pain of not knowing what happened to Lisa has taken a toll on his whole family. He told Dateline he went through stages of grief, anger, and then finally -- peace. “I’m actually a pastor. It’s been a lot for me to heal from myself,” he said. “Through Christ and my relationship with him, he taught me how to forgive. I forgive them for what they did to my sister.”
Though he might forgive, Terry said he will never forget his sister. His protector. The one he looked forward to growing old with.
Terry and his brothers have all commemorated Lisa through their children. Bradford, the oldest, named his first two daughters after Lisa. “One of them is Lisa and one of them is Ann, my sister’s middle name,” Terry said. His brother Rodney named his daughter Jolisa.
As for Terry, he said he gave his daughter his sister’s initials — L.A. “She reminds me of my sister a lot,” he said. “She’s a little lighter, but she still looks like her.”
Although Lisa and Russell’s case is unsolved, Terry said he has faith. “I believe there are people out there that know what really happened,” he said. “I think it’s a possibility.”
Anyone who has information about the deaths of Lisa Thompson and Russell Anthony is asked to call the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office at 803-283-3388.