'Serial killer' loose in Upstate
2 men, 2 women slain in 6-day stretch; 200 investigators working on case
Provided
Police sketch
John Byrum/Spartanburg Herald Journal/AP Photo
Reward posters hang in the window of a local business in Gaffney, S.C. Friday. Sheriff's deputies are searching for a serial killer blamed for four deaths over the past six days as terrified residents wonder who might be next.
John Byrum/Spartanburg Herald Journal/AP Photo
The Tyler Home Center in Gaffney, S.C., where Stephen Tyler was shot and killed. His daughter was also shot and injured.
GAFFNEY — Police sketches of the suspected killer are taped to windows of downtown stores. Strangers and friends ask one another if he has been caught, or if he's struck again. And the headline in the local paper summed up the mood of this town 20 miles east of Spartanburg: "TERRORIZED."
Residents of Gaffney were frightened Friday as local, state and federal law enforcement officers hunted a man they say has killed four people in six days, in three attacks.
All the killings happened during the day. The most recent victims were shot Thursday afternoon at an appliance and furniture store near downtown, at closing time. The store owner, Stephen Tyler, 48, was killed. One of his daughters, 15-year-old Abby, was shot and seriously wounded.
"Yes, we have a serial killer," Cherokee County Sheriff Bill Blanton said at a news conference Friday.
At Pete's Restaurant in Gaffney, store owner Janice Gardner said the Tyler family frequently visited the restaurant, and she pointed to a booth where two Tyler daughters ate a week ago.
"They were very nice people, Christian people," said Gardner. She said this town of just under 13,000 people is stunned, in part because "everyone knows everyone's business."
"This is a small town," she said. "When people come in, I write down what they want to eat because I know what they are going to order. People know everyone's business. If he's from around here, someone would have recognized him, or his vehicle. The looks on people's faces — they're scared."
The killings began last Saturday about 10 miles from Gaffney, a town known to travelers for the Peachoid, a giant water tower shaped like peach on Interstate 85.
Kline Cash, 63, a peach farmer, was found shot in the living room of his home in northwest Cherokee County. Police said he appeared to have been robbed.
On Wednesday, Hazel Linder, 83, and her daughter Gena Linder Parker, 50, were found bound and shot in their home in northwest Cherokee County, about 4 miles from the first victim. The sheriff's office is trying to determine if anything was stolen.
Stephen Tyler was killed in his store Thursday, near downtown. His home address is listed near the other victims, northwest of Gaffney.
Blanton said "there is no evidence there is a hit list. There's no evidence he knows the victims. There's no evidence the victims are connected."
He said the killer is unpredictable, and that 200 investigators are working on the case.
Cherokee County, with a population 54,000, had six homicides in 2008, and three in 2007, according to The Associated Press.
Police are looking for a Ford Explorer that's gray or champagne in color, possibly from 1991-1994.
They describe the suspect as a white man, about 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds with salt-and-pepper hair.
Blanton and the Gaffney city police declined to release any details of the crime scenes. They said they were withholding some evidence to rule out false confessions.
Residents have "their guard up and their gun handy," said state Sen. Harvey Peeler, R-Gaffney.
"There is no greater fear than the fear of the unknown and nobody knows. You can cut the tension with a knife," Peeler said. "People are locking their doors, even in broad daylight."
Brad Clyde, a mechanic, said Gaffney residents are looking at each other closely.
"When you pass someone in an Explorer, you stop and look at the driver," said Clyde.
He said stores have sold out of ammunition, and that people have been driving to Spartanburg to buy handguns.
Authorities have urged sales people to stop making door-to-door calls. They also urged people not to visit friends unannounced.
E-mail this story
Printer-friendly version
Comments
WSM (anonymous) says...
Precisely why we have the 2nd Amendment.
Someone will eventually take this bottom feeder out, and the the SO will just have to clean up the mess and ID the body.
July 4, 2009 at 2:10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Bluebird63 (anonymous) says...
Why is this just now making the local news? It has been national since at least yesterday..
July 4, 2009 at 9:22 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
adorecouture (anonymous) says...
"People are locking their doors, even in broad daylight."
Maybe I'm a little different, but don't most lock their doors regardless of whether or not the sun is shining? Just saying...
July 4, 2009 at 9:26 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
stillfree1 (anonymous) says...
He looks a little like Pee Wee Gaskins, mass muderer in SC back in the 70's.
July 4, 2009 at 9:39 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Duchess (anonymous) says...
This is why we need the continued right to bear arms!! Gun controll would limit our ability to stop this person from coming into our homes and taking our lives.
I hope someone puts an end to his senceless killings. What a coward to do such a thing.
July 4, 2009 at 9:41 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Duchess (anonymous) says...
I dont know where you live adorecouture but we dont lock our doors in broad daylight. I have pitbulls in a fenced yard and a barking poodle inside, plus a loaded shotgun. I feel very safe. Not everyone lets criminals scare them into hiding inside inside closed locked doors.The punk better be aiming with a long distance rifle to take me out.
July 4, 2009 at 9:46 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Time4action (anonymous) says...
About two years ago a man came in my front door. I stood up and asked what's going on? He said he had the wrong house, turned around and run off. Since then, my doors stay locked.
July 4, 2009 at 10:07 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Time4action (anonymous) says...
I forgot to mention that was in broad daylight.
July 4, 2009 at 10:08 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
ysillyme (anonymous) says...
Wanna bet this so called "serial killer" is a transplanted yankee, delude by the charm and grace of the south? His photo sure doesn't inspire fear in me. Maybe a little anger.
July 4, 2009 at 11:50 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
usa99 (anonymous) says...
This is a very small town in the upstate. Everyone, up until this point, felt safe due to knowing everyone in the town and their business. When you are from a small town, you get this small town mentality, that is accompanied by complacency and the "that'll never happen here." I grew up in a town a lot smaller than Gaffney and up until I moved to Spartanburg I thought/felt the same way. My town is comparable to Mayberry...3-4 police officers, 1 gas station, 1 bank, and 1 grocery store. When I was growing up we NEVER locked our doors but since I moved away my mother has since changed those ways, thank God. I just pray that this sick individual is caught before he gets to hurt anyone else.
July 4, 2009 at 12:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
usa99 (anonymous) says...
And bluebird, the reason this is just now making local news is b/c apparently not everyone is sick of hearing about gov. sanford's affair. I'm frankly quite tired of it. He cheated, big deal, he's human. There are plenty of people cheating on their spouses everyday yet it doesn't get published in the newspaper. Enough is enough already. If he doesn't love his wife anymore then let her deal with it. What, we the people, shouldn't sway her feelings for her husband. She has to live with the decision, not us.
July 4, 2009 at 12:57 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
NakedYoga (anonymous) says...
What a badass you are, Duchess.
July 4, 2009 at 2:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Duchess (anonymous) says...
No I'm no bad ass.I'm just like the other law abiding citizens of this great country. I'm just resourceful untill the theres a better way to be secure. I'm scared for the innocent that dont have the means to feel safe and protected because the government has yet come up with that solution. But I 'm all for it when they do.
July 4, 2009 at 3:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Bluebird63 (anonymous) says...
Thanks for clarifying that for me usa99. It did seem painfully obvious to me that Sanford news was more important than other people's lives. However the national news seemed to find room for both. I feel bad for this state and it's priorities sometimes! Or at least what the media seems to consider our priorities. I could give it the excuse that the police didn't want the information out..and in that case the national news obviously has another agenda, because they knew.
Are we not smart enough to read national news? Yes, we are so it should have been posted local first!
July 4, 2009 at 4:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Mabilene (anonymous) says...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090704/a...
July 4, 2009 at 5:36 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
UrGatorbait (anonymous) says...
Transplanted yankee, some of you are so deluded...I'll go with outta work inbred from Ladson...
July 4, 2009 at 9:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
SpongeMunkie (anonymous) says...
I just read on CNN that the 15 year old girl just died. He's up to 5 victims now. The P & C need to update this article.
July 4, 2009 at 11:33 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
pr54321 (anonymous) says...
I feel safe, too. I've got a loaded shotgun under my pillow and a .357 on my night stand, and I keep a pistol in the fridge, just in case someone tries to grab me from behind while I'm getting a snack in the middle of the night. Also, I keep a 9mm behind the toilet tank, because I really like my privacy while I'm going to the bathroom, and I keep a hand grenade in the glove compartment of my car in case someone cuts me off or gives me a dirty look on the highway, and oh yes. I have a Gatling gun outside near the kids' swing set, because you never know when the terrorists might parachute into your back yard, and I've wired the house with explosives just in case I have to escape in a hurry and blow it to kingdom come, and I have a Sherman tank in storage that I'm fixing up to use just for daily errands like to the supermarket and back, because safety is a top priority for me, and I put a giant boulder on my roof to crush anyone who rings the doorbell, and I just ordered a Trident missile off eBay, so let's just SEE that serial killer try to get at me now!
July 4, 2009 at 11:48 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
omarro1974 (anonymous) says...
pr54321, I wish they had a "best of" section. That was funny as hell.
July 5, 2009 at 12:45 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Cid95 (anonymous) says...
Nice one pr! :) You need some escape tunnels patrolled by trained and hungry cobras though. I didn't feel "secure" until I had my tunnels built. Stay safe.
The quote from the state senator was awesome "their guard up and their gun handy"!
July 5, 2009 at 1:33 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
walleyedwoman1215 (anonymous) says...
PR I was enjoying an ice-cold Diet A&W root beer until I read your hilarious post and it spurted out my nose at 50 mph. Post that on craigslist "rants & raves" and it'll be flagged for best of in 5 minutes.
July 5, 2009 at 5:06 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Postandcourier.com is pleased to offer readers the enhanced ability to comment on stories. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. Postandcourier.com does not edit user submitted statements and we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not postandcourier.com. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click "report abuse" and we will review it for possible removal. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our website.
Users can now build user-to-user connections, follow friends' recent posts, add an avatar that fits their personality, and more. If you have posted here before you'll need to sign up again, or if you've never posted before, start now by signing up!
Full terms and conditions can be read here.