COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) -
In the middle of the Midlands it's a street with an infamous name.
It's a stretch that marked Maura Wilson's life. She lost her 24-year-old son, William, at that spot.
"His body was thrown somewhere over here and bike was crumpled up over here," she said.
William ran track at the Citadel. He was riding a bike on his way to marathon training when a car hit him four years ago.
"He was semi-conscious," said Wilson. "Even when I got there, I said, 'William, it's mom, I'm here.' But his head injuries were severe so he did not survive."
On the way to the funeral, she and her husband noticed a bike in the place where her son ended his last ride.
Friends and fellow cyclists put it up against a street sign in Wilson's honor.
"It's not like a grave site," said Wilson. "Doesn't serve that way at all. I think what it means was community support. What it meant to us was community support we had from other people."
But the cycle known as a ghost bike disappeared. Someone stole it.
"There was a big U-lock on it and those are very hard to break," said Wilson.
It seemed the first time may have been a fluke, someone who didn't know what they were taking. But then it happened a second time, then a third time, and a fourth. Five times altogether.
Friends and cyclists replaced one ghost bike after another. There was even a statue put in the bike's place. It, too, was yanked, grabbing attention from miles around.
"I can say personally I'm very frustrated with it because it's very hurtful to William's friends and family members and that this keeps happening," said Cait Costello with the Palmetto Cycling Coalition. "It's just disrespectful to the cycling community at large."
No one has volunteered to replace it this time. But this mom, who's had so much taken away, said she'd like to one day see it again.
"The bike was a solemn reminder of William's life and how he lost it," said Maura Wilson. "And that people care."
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Scene of crash from where ghost bikes have been stolen
