CHARLESTON — When Polly Sheppard walked into Mt. Zion AME Church last year, she felt a jolt of surprise.

Old pews and historic woodwork were conspicuously missing from the renovated holy space. She noticed the 90-year-old pipe organ was gone, too.

The organ’s disappearance particularly vexed Sheppard, who, at the urging of her husband before he died, had donated $200,000 to Mt. Zion to restore the instrument. That donation followed a $50,000 gift from Sheppard for other repairs to the church.

As she stared at the stripped sanctuary, Sheppard wondered what went wrong.

“It’s not what I expected. It’s not my husband’s wishes,” Sheppard told The Post and Courier. “I don’t know where (the organ) is. Nobody ever told me where it went.”

Sheppard is hardly the only person with unanswered ques

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