Ever since President Donald J. Trump and others told me that TikTok is an agent of the Chinese Communist Party, I have tried to avoid it. I’m not sure what they would want to find out about me, in terms of personal information, but I just know I don’t want them to have it. Yet, because TikTok is a powerful political tool, President Trump has used it in his (successful) attempt to win a second term as President of the United States. Vice-President Kamala Harris uses it, too, in an attempt to win her first term as President of the United States (the vote was yesterday).
And, they use it because it’s where “the young people” get their news and information - filtered, of course, through the lens of the TikTok maker. I say all this because there are two TikToks pinned and two more existing on the Crime and Cask website related to the homicide of former Clinton High School football player Kaden Moses. In truth, one is just a promo of one coming up later; however, taken in total, they do make a compelling case for having fresh eyes take a fresh look at this unsolved homicide in our community.
On Dec. 30 of this year, it will be 1 year since Kaden died (details are in my column in the Oct. 31 issue of The Chronicle). Crime and Cask has taken on this matter with special interest, now that the Murdaugh murder has pretty much played out. When I hit it Oct. 31 for an update, I found that Crime and Cask had 462 following, 85.9K followers and 1.1 Million likes. There’s a Change.org petition that has gained 341 names. There is a GoFundMe that has earned $735 of a $25,000 goal from 17 donors. The original TikTok about Kaden was Aug. 30; the recent follow-ups were Oct. 19, Oct. 21 and Oct. 23. And so, the case is still closed.
All Erika Moses wants is accountability for her 14-year-old son’s death. That is something the Judicial System is not going to provide. She was told that in a meeting on May 3, 2024. She was warned off trying to persue any more official documents in a Sept. 30 letter from Paul T. Ahern, III, Deputy Counsel of the State Law Enforcement Division - he and another person, Thomas H. Robertson, Major, Investigative Services, SLED, have told Erika that the investigative information she wants cannot be made public as it is shielded through SLED’s Department of Child Fatalities (Kaden was 14 when he died of a gunshot) - AND they let her know that if she does get the information, that makes her guilty of a violation of the provision that is punishable by a $500 fine or inprisonment of not more than 6 months, or both (SC Code Ann. 63-11-1990(G)). A June 14 letter says there will be no prosecution in this matter, Erika is told in one of the SLED letters.
There must be a good reason why SLED’s investigations of child fatalities are so super-secret. These files are not subject to subpoena, discovery, or the SC Freedom of Information Act - they are not public records as defined by SC Code Ann. 30-4-20(c) and are “specifically exempt” from disclosure. These investigations are so sensitive we are not allowed to judge if they are well-investigated.
I’m not offering a solution here. I’m just remembering that when I was the Editor of The Newberry Observer, we and The Clinton Chronicle successfully, in court, changed the way SLED was told to look at investigative files once a determination was made that there would be no criminal charges filed. That case involved the late Bobby Harris who ran the Clinton-Newberry Natural Gas Authority and stemmed from a state case that went federal and a court-trial. Mr. Harris was the only one charged and he was not age 14, and he was not a victim. In a criminal investigation like Kaden’s, something must be different.
Vic MacDonald is Editor of The Clinton Chronicle. In June, 2025, he will observe his 50th year as a community journalist. Reach him at 864-833-1900 or news@clintonchronicle.net
