On August 12, 1995, 17-year-old Jessica Phillips, a marine biology enthusiast with a love for Nirvana t-shirts, set out for a sun-soaked day at Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina. She walked alone to a restroom, leaving her friends on a nature trail, and vanished. Despite a massive search, no trace was found—until 1999, when a fisherman’s net dragged up a weighted cooler from the Atlantic, holding her remains and clues to a serial killer. Donald Craig, a salesman who stalked her, was unmasked by her hidden evidence. Jessica’s case, solved by chance, brought justice to a string of murders, proving the ocean’s secrets can’t stay buried.
Jessica was a vibrant senior at Sakaste High, her auburn hair always in a ponytail, a silver cross necklace glinting at her neck—a gift from her grandmother. Living in Myrtle Beach, she dreamed of studying marine life at Coastal Carolina University. That summer, she and her friends—Amanda Chen, Sarah Rodriguez, and Michelle Thompson—planned a day at Huntington Beach State Park, a haven of dunes and trails. Jessica loved its pelicans and dolphins, her disposable camera ready to capture them. At 9:30 a.m., she hugged her mom, Catherine, promising to be back by 6 p.m. for a movie. It was the last time they’d speak.
The girls, driven by Amanda’s brother David, arrived at the park by 11:15 a.m., setting up near the beach’s southern end. They swam, snapped photos, and laughed under the sun. Around 1:30 p.m., they hiked the Sandpiper Pond Trail, Jessica pointing out herons with glee. Halfway through, she needed a restroom, a half-mile walk back to the main beach. Her friends continued the trail, expecting to meet her at their towels. It was a routine split, but Jessica never returned. Her backpack, untouched, sat on her towel, her absence growing eerie.
By 4:15 p.m., her friends alerted Ranger Patricia Morrison. The park buzzed with 800 visitors, yet no one saw Jessica after her walk. A search began, covering trails and woods, but found nothing. Detective Michael Harrison arrived, noting the straightforward path made getting lost unlikely. The K9 unit picked up her scent to the parking lot, where it vanished, hinting at a vehicle—and abduction. A white van, owned by Marcus Webb, raised suspicion but led nowhere. The case grew chilling: Jessica, familiar with the park, was gone without a trace in broad daylight.
The search swelled, involving SLED, the Coast Guard, and volunteers. Divers scoured ponds, helicopters scanned dunes, but clues dried up. Harrison suspected foul play, linking Jessica’s case to Laura Martinez’s 1994 vanishing from another park. A pattern emerged—young women, alone, disappearing from recreational areas across the Southeast. By September, a task force led by FBI Agent Patricia Moore identified 12 cases, tied to I-95 and I-77, suggesting a mobile predator. The profile: a cunning, 25-40-year-old man, likely in a travel-heavy job, preying on isolated women with meticulous planning.
Donald Craig, a 38-year-old playground equipment salesman, became a prime suspect. His job took him to state parks across the region, including Huntington Beach. His history—divorces, controlling behavior, and a 1989 arrest—fit Moore’s profile. Surveillance caught him photographing women at parks, but no illegal acts surfaced. By 1997, the task force dissolved, evidence lacking. Craig’s polygraph was inconclusive, and the trail went cold. Jessica’s family, led by Catherine, raised $75,000 through a foundation, advocating for missing persons. Media coverage, including an “Unsolved Mysteries” feature, kept hope alive, but answers stayed elusive.
On July 15, 1999, Captain Tommy Rodriguez, fishing 18 miles off Georgetown, hauled up a barnacle-crusted cooler in his nets. Expecting lost gear, his crew—David Martinez and Kevin Walsh—opened it, revealing human remains wrapped in plastic, a silver cross necklace, and a disposable camera. Rodriguez radioed the Coast Guard, who secured the find. At the SLED lab, dental records and DNA confirmed it was Jessica. Manual strangulation marked her death as murder. The cooler, a Yeti model sold at select stores, traced back to a purchase by Craig in April 1995.
Craig’s arrest on July 28, 1999, followed a search of his Atlanta home, uncovering a journal detailing eight murders, including Jessica’s. He confessed to stalking her, luring her with a fake maintenance worker story, and killing her after abduction. The weighted cooler, dumped offshore, was meant to hide her forever. His job’s travel shielded his crimes, targeting women like Jessica across states. Convicted of eight murders, Craig got the death penalty, bringing closure to families like the Phillipses, though grief lingered.
On X, #JessicaPhillips trended, with users sharing her story and the cooler’s photo: “Her necklace solved it,” one wrote. TikTok videos retraced her last walk, urging park safety. Like the 1996 Phelps case, it showed persistence pays off. Jessica’s love for marine life inspired her foundation’s work, funding ocean conservation. Huntington Beach State Park added safety measures—lighting, buddy systems—because of her. Her cross necklace, now with Catherine, symbolizes a daughter’s fight for justice from the ocean’s depths.
