HOLLY HILL - The Rev. Buddy Lock says they’ve been separated for 87 years, but with a little more waiting they may once again be together as husband and wife.

“I think it would be exciting,” Lock said. “We would want to do a full memorial service. It would just be exciting to have them back together again.”

Lock said he and members of his Corinth Baptist Church congregation are supporting the efforts to positively identify the remains of Samuel Ida Felder, who is believed to have been found in a dried-up Virginia lake bed.

Known as “Si,” the 37-year-old Clemson graduate fell overboard while boating with his wife and friends on July 23, 1921 at Mountain Lake in Giles County, Va., according to newspapers of the era.

And on Sept. 20 of this year, a class ring bearing the date of 1904 and the initials “SF” was located along with a pair of shoes typical of the 1920s, a cigarette case and some period coins. That led amateur sleuths and police investigators to Felder.

The story of Si and his wife, Katherine, first came to light in a Roanoke Times article on the discovery of the ring and other items. News of the find spread to Orangeburg County.

Lock said not long after reading about the Virginia discovery, he was in conversation about Si and Katherine with a local mortician.

“He said, ‘I know that name,’” Lock recalls. “‘Let’s go take a look in the cemetery.’ So we went out there and she was.”

Never remarried after Si’s death, Katherine died in June 1964. Beside her marker sits another. It reads: “Drowned -- Body never recovered.”

Investigators and church members alike would like to change that.

“I’ve started to find people around here who may be related,” Lock said. “I have a lady in the church who said she was driven to the dentist by his (Si’s) father.”

Giles County investigators say the evidence seems to show the remains belong to Felder. But detectives are waiting on DNA results before making any type of conclusive announcement.

“There’s any number of possibilities,” Giles County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Ron Hamilton said. “We want to make certain.”

Hamilton said investigators have been searching for Felder descendants to compare their DNA with the Mountain Lake remains.

“We’ve found a relative, a real distant relative,” Hamilton said. “But we’re hoping for a match.”

Lock said a member of his church may be a relative. And the Roanoke Times reported on Tuesday a Mt. Pleasant woman is likely a relative as well. Both of those individuals are in contact with Giles County authorities.

Testing and comparison can take up to two months, Hamilton said.

“I want to put closure with it,” he said. “I told my investigators we need to expedite this one.”

Meantime, Katherine lies waiting near Holly Hill for the husband who 87 years ago vanished beneath waves sparkling with “moonlight on the lake,” as one period article described Felder’s death.

“We’re hoping that when this thing is ended, we can petition the state to have his remains interred here,” Lock said. “It’s just a fascinating story. We hope to bring them back together.”

T&D Staff Writer Richard Walker can be reached by e-mail at rwalker@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5516.

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