Homeless man’s death, final days a mystery

ANDERSON — The killing of Mark Napier Kirby has left investigators with a difficult task: trying to piece together the life and death of a man who, in many ways, had become invisible.

The discovery of Kirby’s body in Anderson County woods Friday didn’t come after an exhaustive search; no one even knew he was missing. Kirby was 45 years old and homeless.

Withdrawn from his family, Kirby was not a man who had a clear network of people ready to fill in the details of his life, who could tell anyone what he did last week, last month or last year.

Instead, he was a man who lay dead for at least two days before a hiker — a stranger — found him in the area of Homeland Park.

So the details of his life — and his death — come slow.

On Monday, Lt. Garland Major could reveal only two more things: that Kirby died of injuries to his head and his torso — and that, in their investigation, Anderson County deputies had no new leads.

“We’re still trying to go back and look at what he might have been doing, where he might have been before he died,” Major said. “We are canvassing the neighborhood, we are going door to door, and sometimes, talking to one person leads us to another person to talk to. But there are gaps that, obviously, still need to be filled in.”

Kirby’s movements, at least those that are known, leave little to draw on — except more gaps.

The last clear record that he was alive is from Monday, April 26; that’s when a deputy asked him to leave the Walmart on S.C. 28 — the store nearest his makeshift campsite home. Investigators have been able to determine that Kirby was alive after Monday, but they are not saying how they know that.

From there, the gaps only get bigger.

Kirby’s last known address — at a halfway house in Anderson — is at least four or five months old. Marty Walker, a former roommate of his at the April House, said Kirby was “a fine fellow,” a cancer survivor, who just couldn’t overcome his addictions. Some at the house said they thought drinking might kill him, but not that another person would.

Kirby had family members in Columbia, but had been estranged from them for quite a while.

Investigators are trying to fill the blanks in Kirby’s life, looking for pieces of the puzzle that may lead to his killer.

Many people may have seen Mark Napier Kirby and not even known it.

Noreen Smith is one of those people. Smith works with the Anderson ministry Clean Start, a nonprofit agency that gives the homeless a place to bathe and wash their clothes. But, Smith says, “you may not give your real name just to take a shower.”

“I’ve been trying to place him ever since we heard about a homeless man found dead in the woods,” Smith said. “But we have a lot of Marks. And we have a lot of people who may sign in as ‘Mark,’ but may really be John or Jim or Tim. Still, you hate to see this happen to another human being, whether you recognize his name or not.”