Florence County EMS worker remembers Phonesia Machado-Fore
FLORENCE COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — A Florence County EMS worker remembered 52-year-old Pee Dee paramedic Phonesia Machado-Fore, whose body was found in Dillon County last Friday.
Machado-Fore was last seen March 12 and was later reported missing on March 15. Her body was found later that night in the Lake View area of Dillon County.
Jaremy Smith, a Marion man suspected of shooting and killing a New Mexico State Police officer, is also considered a person of interest in her disappearance and death. Her death was ruled a homicide by Dillon County Coroner Donnie Grimsley on Tuesday.
Timeline: What’s happened so far in the case of slain Pee Dee paramedic Phonesia Machado-Fore
Maj. Kate Smith is a training officer for Florence County EMS who knew Machado-Fore for many years. She met Machado-Fore when she was still in paramedic school.
Machado-Fore started working full-time with Florence EMS in 2017 while also working part-time with Marion County EMS. Smith explained the kind of person she was.
“She was dedicated, you know, she would come to work, and she was happy to be at work, she was smiling,” Smith said. “She would meet new people when they would come in and, well, you knew that she had decided that she liked them . . . yep, she was going to show them the ropes.”
Machado-Fore was a mother of two as well as a grandmother and loved her children and grandchildren very much.
Smith explained how people at work are dealing with her loss.
“This has just been, it’s been really hard,” she said. “Not just for the people that were on shift with her, it’s across all of the shifts. There’s a heaviness right now.”
“I would venture to say that there’s a lot of folks who are just stunned. This was so quick, and so sudden, and so horrific,” Smith continued. “She dedicated her life to taking care of others, she was such a sweet person and so kind and would go out of her way to help others, that you know, for her to lose her life like this, you can’t put it into words how unbelievably senseless that is.”
Smith said Machado-Fore was always happy, smiling and was committed to her work and loved what she did.
“She’s a force of nature . . . just really dedicated,” she said. “She loved people and it was really obvious, not just because it was what she did for a living, she just genuinely loved people.”
Authorities in Dillon and Marion County are jointly investigating her death.
A funeral service is set for Machado-Fore on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the CD Joyner Auditorium in Marion.
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Hannah Huffstickler is a multimedia journalist at News13. She joined the News13 team in January 2024 after graduating from Coastal Carolina University in December of 2023. Keep up with Hannah on Facebook and Instagram. You can also read more of her work here.
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