Slayings suspect sought

COLUMBIA -- Authorities continued their search Friday for a man they said killed two women, set their bodies on fire, then severely beat a Georgia store clerk several weeks later.

Deputies have not said what motive they believe compelled Franklin Wright, 55, to kill the women in August, though they revealed some details of the latest accusation against him.

Georgia authorities said Friday that Wright had been helping 54-year-old Jennie Hope around her store in Augusta for several months. On Wednesday night, authorities said, Wright beat Hope severely in the face, fracturing her skull and leaving her bleeding in a back room of the store before taking money from the cash register.

"I don't know what he told her, but we know that he had been assisting her for the past several months," said Lt. Calvin Chew, a spokesman for the Richmond County Sheriff's Department in Georgia.

Authorities said Hope likely lay there for more than an hour before she was discovered. On Friday, Chew said Hope was in critical condition in a medically induced coma for bleeding on the brain and multiple fractures.

While the search for Wright continues, authorities will not discuss any possible links between him and the women he's accused of killing. Authorities found the body of Shalamar Byrd, 38, of Augusta, in a wooded area on Aug. 11.

An hour earlier authorities had found the body of Yana Schenker, 75, burned in her Aiken County home.

Using fingerprints, dental records and DNA, it took authorities days to identify the women. Investigators said Byrd and Schenker were suffocated before their bodies were set on fire.

On Thursday, authorities obtained warrants charging Wright with murder and arson in the deaths, although South Carolina authorities said they suspected him in the two deaths even before Hope's assault.

"We were looking at him, and as part of the investigation," Aiken County Sheriff's Capt. Charles Barranco said.

State Law Enforcement Records show that Wright has a criminal record dating back nearly 40 years, starting with a 1973 arrest for assault, for which he was sentenced six years in prison.

Apparently released early, Wright was arrested three years later and was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for assault and larceny convictions. He was released in 1987, when his sentence maxed out.