‘Serial killer’ claims fifth victim in South Carolina
Jul 6th, 2009 by Bilal Ali
 A 15-year-old South Carolina girl who was shot earlier this week by a man authorities say fits the description of a serial killer has died, police said Saturday
Abby Tyler died at 11:25 a.m. Saturday at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, said Chief Rick Turner of the Gaffney Police Department.
Her father, Stephen Tyler, 48, was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting Thursday in the family-run furniture and appliance store, Tyler Home Center, in Gaffney.
On Friday, the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office released a second sketch of a man believed to have fatally shot five people in less than a week.
“Let me say that under the FBI’s definition of a serial killer, yes, we have a serial killer,” Sheriff Bill Blanton said in Gaffney, a town in the county of about 54,000 residents 50 miles southwest of Charlotte, North Carolina.
He would not detail what has led investigators to conclude the shootings are linked or how they received the description of the suspect that has led to the two sketches. In addition, he said he did not know whether the shooter knew his victims or whether he may have chosen them at random
Police said he may be driving a light gray or champagne tan 1991-94 two-door Ford Explorer.
The first shooting happened Saturday, when peach farmer Kline W. Cash, 63, was found dead by his wife in their home, said Leigh Caldwell, a victims services coordinator for the sheriff’s office.
Blanton said Cash’s home may have been robbed.
On Wednesday, the bound and shot bodies of 83-year-old Hazel Linder and her 50-year-old daughter, Gena Linder Parker, were found in the mother’s home, where she lived alone.
“We’re still trying to determine if anything’s missing from there,” Blanton said.
Leave has been canceled for all members of the Police Department and the Sheriff’s Department, said their respective chiefs, who urged residents to take precautions
About 100 investigators from North and South Carolina were working the case, Blanton said.
“I think our community has a right to be concerned,” he said. “We’re concerned. We’re dealing with a man that’s killed four people.”
He urged residents to check on relatives, especially those who live alone. “We’re asking the people in our community to be vigilant, to report anything.”
But he cautioned against taking that too far. “Our concern is that people are going to start shooting at shadows,” he said