Warren Turner Wins Wrongful Termination Lawsuit! Re-Hired! Next: His Council Seat?

Former Charlotte Councilman Warren Turner reinstated to state probation job


Former Charlotte City Council member Warren Turner, fired in July 2010 from his job as a state probation officer, has been reinstated.

Turner began working again with the state probation office earlier this month as a judicial services coordinator in Gaston County.

Pamela Walker, the N.C. Department of Public Safety's deputy director of communications, told the Observer in a prepared statement Friday that Turner had been reinstated after the N.C. Department of Correction reviewed the appeal of his firing.



"After careful consideration of the issues raised by both Mr. Turner and the DOC, the parties have reached a mutual settlement agreement," Walker said in the statement. "The department reviewed Mr. Turner's level of career experience and agrees to his reinstatement."

The settlement agreement calls for Turner to receive back pay between the time of his firing and reinstatement. The state also will pay $10,000 to Turner's legal counsel to cover the cost of his appeal.

Walker said the settlement that led to Turner's reinstatement was reached before the appeal came before the N.C. Office of Administrative Hearings.

She also said Turner's annual salary of $41,451 is the same pay he received as a probation officer.

Judicial services coordinators are responsible for the intake of new probation cases, preparing pre-sentence reports and conducting initial risk-needs assessments.

Turner, 47, could not be reached for comment Friday. His attorney, Eric Montgomery, declined comment.

Montgomery said in 2010 that Turner would appeal his firing. He said the reasons listed by the DOC in the letter to Turner were "procedural BS."

Montgomery said the DOC decided it wanted to fire Turner and then looked for a way to do it.

Turner and his attorney have repeatedly said Turner didn't do anything wrong.

Turner, after eight years on the City Council, lost his bid for re-election in 2011. His last term was marred by accusations of sexual harassment.

A city investigation in 2010 found Turner had made sexually inappropriate comments to at least five female staff members. Turner denied the allegations. The City Council declined to censure him.

Turner was fired from his probation officer job for missing meetings or drug screenings with at least 14 probationers, according to a termination letter released by the DOC.

The DOC said Turner falsified at least one record of a home visit with a probationer. The agency also said Turner reported visiting with probationers on days that he was on leave or wasn't scheduled to work.

Turner also had been told not to conduct city business on state time, but then spent hours on his city-issued cellphone conducting city business during state work hours, according to the DOC. His actions, the agency said, were a "blatant disregard" of the earlier warning.

The DOC said it didn't find any evidence that Turner had made sexually inappropriate comments or harassed female probationers.

The Observer reported that in 2009 Mecklenburg County officials told Charlotte City Manager Curt Walton that they believed Turner had misrepresented himself as a county building inspector.

A woman told the Observer that Turner visited a construction site on South Tryon Street and showed his gun to laborers working there. She said he told them he was a building inspector and threatened to put them in jail if they didn't stop working on the house.

After the report, the DOC moved Turner to a desk job and took away his state-issued gun and car pending an investigation. The termination letter didn't address the allegation that Turner showed the laborers a gun.

Turner began his new job as judicial services coordinator Feb. 6. Coordinators do not carry weapons.

Turner has said repeatedly that he did nothing wrong.

Turner, a Democrat, had been a probation officer for 20 years. He was first elected to the City Council in 2003.


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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, WCNC, Youtube, Google Maps

North Carolina Passes DNA Law To Lock Up More Blacks (Racial Profiling)

North Carolina
Department of Corrections Prisons Statistics


NUMBER OF PRISONS: 71
INMATE POPULATION: 40,133
PRISON SYSTEM CAPACITY: Standard 34,364 ....Extended 40,014
Prison Population and Capacity Data as of 12/31/2009:

GENDER:
Male .....................37,296 .........93%
Female...................2,837 ...........7%
RACE:
Black ....................22,918 .........57%
White ...................14,148 .........35%
American Indian .......758 ...........2%
Asian/Oriental ........... 118 ...........0%
Other......................2,191 ...........6%






North Carolina DNA Sample Testing System Expanded In New N.C. Law


North Carolina's criminal DNA testing system will be expanded with Gov. Bev Perdue signing a bill Thursday that supporters say will help prevent crime and help solve cold cases.

The measure directs police, starting Feb. 1, to take DNA samples of suspects facing certain felony charges, such as murder, rape and other serious crimes.

The samples will be entered into the state's DNA database and ran against DNA evidence in unsolved crimes.

“These samples are the 21st century version of fingerprints,” Perdue said at a bill-signing ceremony in Greenville. “We need to give our law enforcement officers the most advanced tools that we can when they head out on the streets.”

The state already takes a sample when someone is convicted of a felony, but Attorney General Roy Cooper says the new law will expand the DNA database and help solve crimes more quickly – an estimated 100 in the first year.

"It's a win for North Carolina citizens," Cooper said.

Some lawmakers, however, say requiring the sample upon arrest amounts to unreasonable search and seizure.

“I feel like it's unfair. I think it may be a type of targeting that we don't intend for it to be,” said Rep. Rosa Gill, D-Wake, who voted against the bill.

Concerns from lawmakers and advocacy groups prompted changes to the original bill, which required samples from anyone arrested on a felony charge.

The law only calls for samples from those committing certain felonies – specifically violent and sex-related crimes – including murder, manslaughter, rape, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, breaking and entering, armed robbery, cyberstalking and stalking.

The bill also allows for removing a person's DNA from the state database if he or she is acquitted or the charge is dropped.

Federal funds will be used to pay for a portion of the DNA testing.

Eight additional forensic criminal analysts are expected to be hired to analyze and review samples, distribute swab collection kits to law enforcement and help with training.


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Sources: NC Dept of Corrections, WRAL, Google Maps

Warren Turner's Abuse Towards Women Permitted By N.C. State Officials

N.C. Dept Of Corrections Invokes Privacy In Warren Turner Sexual Harassment Case


The N.C. Department of Correction, which employs Charlotte City Council member Warren Turner as a Probation Officer, said Tuesday it won't release a list of Probationers whom Turner has supervised, which the Charlotte Observer had requested.

The department said it is conducting an "initial review" of the City of Charlotte's report released Monday that detailed Sexual Harassment allegations by five women that Turner made sexually inappropriate comments toward them.

According to the report, two of the employees told other city officials they didn't want to be alone with Turner. The report said Turner had been "involuntarily terminated" from the Charlotte Police Academy in 1988 after he physically threatened a female cadet and made "repeated" sexually inappropriate comments toward her.

A year after Turner was terminated from the academy, he was hired by the state as a probation officer, supervising men and women on probation.

"Warren Turner occupies a position of authority and we take that very seriously," wrote Pamela Walker, the DOC director of external affairs, in an e-mail.

Turner has said he hasn't done anything wrong and denied the allegations in the investigation. The report, however, concluded that Turner had been "less than fully truthful" during the probe.

Walker said the DOC might decide to release Turner's personnel file, which the Observer also requested. But any list of probationers won't be made public, Walker said.

The DOC wrote in an e-mail Friday that "people who are no longer on probation have a fair expectation of privacy."

The department wrote that "for those that are currently on probation and doing well, making them subject to news media questions about their supervising officer puts them in a difficult position."

Walker said N.C. law allows the state to release a list of probationers "when (Correction Secretary Alvin Keller) feels it is in the interest of public safety. The offender list does not apply in this case."

State statute says that "all information and data obtained in the discharge of official duty by a probation officer shall be privileged information ... and shall not be disclosed ... unless ... ordered by a judge of the court or the Secretary of Correction."

The Observer hasn't requested any information relating to Turner's files on probationers, only a list of people he has supervised. It is a public record in North Carolina when a person is on probation.

Turner declined to comment Tuesday when contacted by the Observer.

In an interview with WBTV Tuesday, Turner said he has been in contact with the Department of Correction about the report and that the investigation "smeared" his name.

Monday's report was spurred by a female city staff member known in the report as Employee A, who complained that on Dec. 14, 2009, Turner pulled on her sweater at waist level when she was leaving fellow council member James Mitchell's office.

When interviewed by the investigators, Mitchell said he didn't remember Turner grabbing the employee's clothing, the report said. Mitchell also told an investigator he didn't telephone her a day or two later to apologize for Turner's behavior, as the employee said.

The employee had complained two other times about Turner making what she considered inappropriate comments to her in 2008, the report said. That year she told her supervisor, known as Employee B, that she didn't want to be alone with Turner.

Four other female employees, including Employee B and the former police cadet, told an investigator that Turner had made sexually inappropriate comments toward them.

Employee B said she witnessed Turner make sexually inappropriate comments on more than one occasion, according to the report. Once, during a National League of Cities meeting in Reno, Nevada, in 2006, she and Turner were walking through a casino. She said Turner made a sexually explicit comment to her as they passed a store displaying pornographic magazines, the report said.

Employee B later had a meeting with City Attorney Mac McCarley and then-City Manager Pam Syfert. McCarley told investigators that she didn't want to be alone with Turner and asked that a male staff member attend future trips.

McCarley said Monday night he didn't confront Turner because the employees had requested that no formal action be taken.

Pat McCrory, who was mayor for 14 years until December 2009, said he had "no idea" about the complaints about Turner.

"I didn't know anything about this," McCrory said Tuesday. "This is complete news to me."

McCrory wasn't interviewed by Moore & Van Allen, the law firm the council hired to investigate the matter. McCrory works at the law firm, and was "walled off" from the investigation, according to McCarley.

When asked Tuesday whether Charlotte City staff should have confronted Turner sooner, Mayor Anthony Foxx said, "Yes. There's no question about it."

Foxx, who was elected to the City Council in 2005, said he hadn't heard anything about such incidents before he became mayor.

After Turner allegedly pulled on Employee A's sweater, the employee complained to her supervisor and City Manager Curt Walton. The supervisor then talked to Human Resources Director Tim Mayes, who said: "I can't sit on this even if (the employee) doesn't want to go forward."

Mayes and Foxx discussed the allegation, and Foxx sent an e-mail in March to all 11 council members warning them not to sexually harass staff. It prompted intense speculation, and led to the council hiring Moore & Van Allen.

Valecia McDowell of Moore & Van Allen read the report Monday night. Council members could vote to censure Turner, though the city's policy against sexual harassment doesn't apply to council members. That means Turner can't be suspended or removed from office.

Turner told council members Monday he would respond to the report, though he didn't say when.

Much of the discussion Monday night was not about the allegations in the report, but about Foxx's decision to send an e-mail to council members. Republican Edwin Peacock asked Foxx, a Democrat, several times why the issue wasn't handled privately.

Said Peacock: "Where do we go from here after this? Where do we go to work with one another?"

Foxx said that he had asked that Walton, McCarley and other officials have a meeting with Turner, though they declined. Walton has said he didn't feel comfortable with such a meeting because the council is responsible for hiring the city manager.

Foxx said Walton then asked Foxx to address the problem before an upcoming council trip to Washington in March.

"I acted," Foxx said.

Democrat Michael Barnes, who is running for Mecklenburg District Attorney, defended Foxx's handling of the situation. He said the city would have been criticized if it attempted to investigate the situation in closed session.

"You can't expect us to deal with this privately," Barnes said Monday. "There was no reasonable set of options that would have allowed (Foxx) to privately deal with this."

Foxx sent a memo Tuesday afternoon to council members stating he was forming an ad hoc City Council Ethics Review Policy Committee to consider, among a number of issues, whether the existing sexual harassment policy should be applicable to City Council members.


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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, N.C. Dept of Corrections, WBTV, WCNC, WSOC, Google Maps

NC Judge Orders 2 Inmates Convicted Of Murder Released

NC Judge: Lifers should be Freed


NC Superior Court Judge Ripley Rand has ruled that two inmates sentenced to life in the 1970s should be freed.

His order comes less than a week after Alford Jones and Faye Brown, both convicted of murder, argued that they were being illegally detained by North Carolina prison officials, Mandy Locke reports.

The state's highest courts have ruled that life sentences imposed between 1974 and 1978 amounted to 80 years. Brown and Jones argued that credits earned for good behavior, working while in prison and earning degrees made them eligible for release now.

Prison officials argued that they never awarded credits to these inmates for anything other than consideration of parole or changing their grade of custody.

In his order, Rand acknowledged the prison system's method of awarding credits but said that policy has been wrong.

"The Court concludes that the Department of Correction's interpretation of its regulations regarding the award of sentence reduction credits is clearly erroneous, and that a different reading is compelled by the plain language of the regulations," he wrote.



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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, News & Observer, Wikipedia, CDCR, Google Maps

NC Republicans Question Planned Release Of 20 Violent Criminals...Governor Says No

NC GOP: What's the hurry on inmates


State Reps. Paul Stam and Nelson Dollar want to know why the state is in such a hurry to release 20 inmates who have served 30 or so years of a "Life" sentence.

Stam, an Apex Republican and House minority leader, and Dollar, a Cary Republican, sent a letter to Attorney General Roy Cooper and N.C. Correction Secretary Al Keller urging the officials to slow down on releasing the inmates.

One of the inmates, Bobby Bowden, successfully argued to the N.C. Court of Appeals that he has served his time. When he was convicted of a double murder in Fayetteville, the state defined a life sentence as 80 years and the court found that Bowden had earned enough credit to be released.

The Correction department has calculated that Bowden is one of 20 inmates that must be released this month. Stam and Dollar said that no court is ordering the release.

"We are concerned with the haste with which the potential release of these felons is being considered. Only inmate Bowden has filed a motion. His case has been remanded for a hearing to determine sentence reduction credits that he is eligible to receive and how those credits are to be applied. It is premature to consider releasing other prisoners."

The letter also suggested that the department was miscounted credits for time served. In 1981, the legislature changed the state's sentencing scheme and instituted a system for credit in which offenders would earn virtually a day off the sentence for every good day in prison.

Stam and Dollar say that system was not intended to apply to inmates sentenced before the 1981 law. In 1983, the correction department applied the new scheme to all inmates.




Gov. Bev Perdue says No release

Gov. Beverly Perdue says she will not release 20 inmates who received life sentences in the 1970s.

Court decisions have said that one of those inmates, Bobby Bowden, appears eligible for release because when he was convicted of a double murder, state law defined a "life" sentence as 80 years. The court said that Bowden appeared to have earned enough credit to qualify for release.

The N.C. Department of Correction identified 20 inmates who would also appear to qualify for release because of their credit for good behavior. Perdue said in a statement that new questions about how the inmates were awarded credit off their sentences will mean the inmates won't get out of prison soon.

"Since that ruling, my staff and I have been doing everything we can to stop the release of these rapists and murderers. These are people who have been denied parole repeatedly, and many who have numerous infractions during their prison stay. I do not believe they are ready for release onto the streets of our communities."

Perdue said the good behavior credits that reduced the life sentences may have been incorrectly applied to the inmates, an issue that Republicans have also raised.

Perdue said that Thursday morning, legal counsel and Department of Correction staff met with officials who oversaw the application of good behavior credits during the 1980s.

"At the time, the DOC gave inmates day-for-day credits under the authority of the then-secretary. There is a real question whether the General Assembly intended for the DOC to have that kind of authority. I do not believe they did, and my legal counsel agrees. This raises the very real question that these inmates should not be eligible for early release."

Sen. Majority Leader Tony Rand said the inmates should not qualify for release.

"Our first responsibility is to public safety. We join Governor Perdue in working to see that these violent criminals stay in prison and that the state does anything and everything in its power to prevent their release. We have had legislative counsel researching this situation for over a week. Based on our review and as an attorney myself, I am confident that the Department of Correction is under no obligation to release these prisoners next week. We have shared our findings with the Attorney General and trust that as the chief law enforcement officer of this state, he will ensure that no one is released until every legal avenue is exhausted."

Attorney General Roy Cooper also released a statement.

"In the interest of public safety and to ensure that sentences and release dates are properly calculated according to law, we have advised the Department of Correction that no prisoners have to be released until further direction from the courts. We continue to believe that these prisoners need to remain behind bars as we have argued for more than two years to the courts."



State forced to free 20 Violent criminals

Twenty murderers, rapists and robbers sentenced to life in North Carolina prisons in the 1970s will be released at the end of October as a result of recent court rulings.

Most of the inmates are in their 50s and 60s, but many of them were convicted years ago of gruesome crimes that might have kept them locked up longer today. One of them successfully petitioned the courts to recognize that old laws defined a life sentence as 80 years, and that another law cut those sentences in half.

Ten of those scheduled to be released were sex offenders, including men who raped young girls. Seven have spent time on death row. The one woman in the group was convicted of murdering a state trooper while fleeing a bank robbery.

State officials said Thursday they have no choice but to release them.

"I am appalled that the state of North Carolina is being forced to release prisoners who have committed the most heinous crimes, without any review of their cases," said Gov. Beverly Perdue.

Thomas Bennett, executive director of the N.C. Victim Assistance Network, worries about the victims' safety and stability.

"This will open new wounds and retraumatize crime victims," Bennett said. "These are bad actors. These are not people we want on the streets."

Perdue's office said she was determined to find a way to keep the inmates in prison, but a spokesman for the state's attorney general said it is unlikely she will prevail.

"Our lawyers have argued just about everything they can think of to keep this from happening," said Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Roy Cooper. "The Supreme Court has the final say."

The inmates are scheduled to be released Oct. 29, just 20 days after the N.C. Supreme Court declined to overturn a state Court of Appeals decision that recalculated life sentences applied to crimes committed during the 1970s.

Prison officials expect another eight to 10 inmates a year over the next several years to qualify for release under these new guidelines.

Those inmates due to be released owe their freedom to Bobby Bowden, 60, a former death row inmate convicted in 1975 of killing two Fayetteville men.

In 2005 Bowden appealed to a local judge in Cumberland County, arguing that he had served his "life" sentence. Bowden's pitch failed locally, but last year the state Court of Appeals ruled that Bowden's math was correct. Last week, the state Supreme Court issued a brief upholding the Court of Appeals ruling.

Bowden has spent 36 years in prison. But during a period of years in the 1970s, state law defined a life sentence as 80 years. In 1981, the state's sentencing laws were revised again, applying a retroactive reduction.

Under the changes, sentences levied before 1981 were essentially cut in half. So, dozens of inmates sentenced to life for crimes committed in the 1970s had their terms reduced to 40 years.

Inmates such as Bowden chiseled away at their 40-year sentences even further with "merit time," months and years knocked off their sentences for good behavior, for taking on jobs while in prison and for completing degree programs. All the inmates to be turned loose on Oct. 29 earned some sort of merit credit.

Since 1994, when North Carolina eliminated parole, a life sentence in North Carolina has meant the convict will die behind bars. But only first-degree murder can carry a life sentence, and now, the shortest sentence someone convicted now of first-degree forcible rape can serve is 12 years.

Feverish Preparation

State correction officials have been working furiously to prepare the 20 inmates for their release and alert the victims and their families. Staff spent this week urging relatives of these inmates to take them in on Oct. 29. They have also been trying to track down victims, many of whom have long since lost touch with the court system.

"In some cases, there's shock when we call," said Keith Acree, a DOC spokesman. "In other cases, there's uncertainty. In a lot of cases, the best we can do is leave a message on a machine."

In the meantime, Acree said, some local prosecutors and police are rifling through old court files, looking for crimes with which they never bothered to charge these defendants. Other officials are running the inmates' names in a national crime database to see if they are wanted on crimes outside North Carolina.

"They are looking for any sort of issue that will allow these people to stay locked up," Acree said.

Bowden, the inmate who launched this battle, may be one of the last to leave.

The Court of Appeals sent his case back to a Cumberland County judge to calculate his exact "life sentence" using the new formula. The judge may not have time to figure that new number soon enough for Bowden to join the others leaving prison at the end of the month.


How the State Laws changed:

Over the years, the state legislature has revised the rules for sentencing criminals. The effect of those changes and new court decisions is leading to the pending release of 20 inmates.

Here are the Laws that came into play:

A 1974 law passed by the General Assembly defined a life sentence as 80 years.

A 1981 law cut prisoner's sentences in half, reducing life sentences assigned during a stretch of years in the 1970s to 40 years.

The Department of Correction gives prisoners credit for good behavior, work and education, which can further reduce their sentences.



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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, News & Observer, Under The Dome, Charlotte Observer, CBS News, NC General Assembly, Thousand Kites, Google Maps

SC Serial Killer Was NC Felon Released Early From Prison...Why Was He Released? Who's Responsible?

Charlotte Observer----

Patrick Tracy Burris, an N.C. felon with a lengthy arrest record, was the serial killer who slew five people in Cherokee County, S.C., last week, police said Monday night.

Burris, 41, was shot and killed Monday morning by Gaston County Police, who were responding to a predawn burglary call near Dallas, N.C. – about 40 miles northeast of Gaffney.

Ballistics tests showed his gun killed the five people near Gaffney, S.C., and investigators said he had items in his Ford Explorer that were taken from the home of his first victim.

“We have him. He's our serial killer,” said S.C. State Law Enforcement Division Deputy Director Neil Dolan. “He was unpredictable. He was scary. He was weird.”Police said his motive remained unknown.

In April, Burris was paroled from a medium security prison , after serving less than 8 years of a 10-year sentence for charges including felony breaking and entering, according to records from the N.C. Department of Corrections.

Less than two months later, on June 27, he killed peach farmer Kline Cash, then four others in the next 10 days, police said.

Burris has been charged at least 60 times, according to court records obtained by The Observer. Police said he has been arrested in North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Florida.

“At some point the criminal justice system will have to explain why this man is on the streets,” said SLED Director Reggie Lloyd, as he waved a paper copy of Burris' arrest record for cameras at a Monday night press conference.

Police said they don't know why Burris was in Cherokee County, and whether he had any connection to his victims. Before going to prison in 2001, Burris lived in Eden and Reidsville in Rockingham County, north of Greensboro. Police found Burris because of an ordinary burglary call.

Michael Valentine was asleep in his home on Dallas-Spencer Mountain Road near Dallas when his dog woke him. He walked into his living room and saw headlights in the driveway of an abandoned house across the street. Valentine said he noticed the vehicle was a Ford Explorer – the same type investigators believed the killer was driving. It was about 2:40 a.m.

He watched as several people in the SUV sat in the car. He couldn't tell who it was, so he phoned police because he knew the house didn't have electricity and he was concerned about burglars.

A police officer arrived and two others followed several minutes later, he said. Valentine told The Observer that two of the people were Mark Stamey, 35, and his sister Sharon Stamey, 31.

Because of the stillness of the night and the closeness of the homes, Valentine could hear voices and the crackle of police radios, he said.

The Stameys told the officers that they had lived in the house and were there to collect some items. Valentine, who had gone outside to see what has happening, said the Stameys got out of the car, along with a third man.

“His head was down, and it was dark, and he was stumbling around drunk,” he said of the Burris. “He said something like, ‘You got booby traps around here.' ”

The Stameys and the man went into the house, Valentine said, and the police followed.

Police say they asked the three people in the Ford Explorer for identification, and that Burris gave false identification. Gaston County police say they eventually got Burris' correct name and discovered he was wanted by Lincoln County authorities for a parole violation.

Valentine heard someone say, “Put it down.”

“Shortly after that I heard a pop and then I heard four more, and then I heard them say, ‘officer has been shot,' ” Valentine said.

Police later said that as they tried to take Burris into custody, the man fired and hit Gaston County officer J.K. Shaw in the leg. Police say they fired back, killing the man. The officer was treated and released from Gaston Memorial Hospital on Monday.

Police declined to say why the Stameys were with Burris. They only said they believe Burris killed alone.

After a day of forensic work, SLED towed the Ford Explorer from the home about 6:30 p.m. Police said that in addition to being the same color as the suspect's SUV, the Explorer had distinctive markings that a witness from the Gaffney area had described. Police hadn't previously disclosed the distinctive markings.

Sharon Stamey was released from Swannanoa Correctional Center for Women in April, where she had served a six-month sentence for trespassing and possession of drugs such as valium and Xanax. She had also been convicted of larceny of a motor vehicle in 2008 and in 2007 was convicted of drug possession.

She is scheduled to be in N.C. District Court in Gastonia today on a felony charge of conspiracy to sell cocaine.

Sharon and Mark Stamey told WCNC, The Observer's news partner, that they met Burris about 2 1/2 weeks ago. The Stameys said they had been “partying” with Burris, and they came to the house to sleep.

The killings began June 27 about 10 miles from Gaffney, a town known to travelers for the Peachoid, a water tower shaped like a giant peach near Interstate 85.

Cash, 63, was found shot in his home on Battleground Road 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 on Buck Shoals Road. They also lived in northwest Cherokee County, about 4 miles from the first victim. The sheriff's office hadn't said whether anything was stolen.

Stephen Tyler, 48, was shot and killed in his furniture and appliance store Thursday, near downtown Gaffney. One of his daughters, 15-year-old Abby, was also shot. She died two days later.

The killings terrorized the area, and residents stockpiled guns and ammunition. A task force of more than 200 investigators worked around the clock chasing down leads.

Residents of the small county – population 54,000 – were puzzled because they assumed someone would recognize him from the police sketch.


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Sources: Charlotte Observer, Google Maps