Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Gaffney serial killer is caught



Gaffney, SC is a small town best known for it's peach water tower, a symbol of the peach orchards in the area. Some have said the peach resembles the back-end of a woman bending over. In addition to the peach orchards, Gaffney, population around 13,000 is also home to Limestone College, a small "private, Christian, non-denominational, coeducational liberal arts college."

Recently, Gaffney has been terrorized by a serial killer who has murdered five people in three separate incidents. There has been no known connection between these people and no pattern. Yesterday, the suspect was killed in nearby Gaston County, NC after a shoot-out with police.

My family has two separate connections to Gaffney, about 50 miles away from my back door. My daughter-in-law's family lives in Gaffney and her mother works at Limestone College. They have lived in Gaffney their entire life. Additionally, my son-in-law's parents attended Limestone back before they were married. The town of Gaffney has been hit hard with this incident and they are all glad it's over.

Much will come out about the individual who committed these crimes. 41 year old Patrick Burris. During a press conference last night, SLED investigators waved a 25 page rap sheet - asking for an explanation as to why this man was on the streets. When captured, Burris was in the company of a couple - what is their role in this mess? Where has Burris been the last two weeks and what led him to Gaffney (he was caught about 30 miles away) to commit these murders?

There will be more research into all of this and I, for one, am interested in the answers. But for now, this saga is over and Gaffney can return to its peaceful nature again.

7 comments:

Thomas said...

Wow. There's a lot goin' on down there in Carolina these days.

Ashley Beth said...

you forgot to mention that Gaffney is also known for it's outlet shopping. I'll let it slide since you are a man.

Randy said...

Thomas, yes, a lot going on. Glad it's over.

Ashley, Outlet shopping? They have that there? (I try to forget - to me shopping is never an event).

Anonymous said...

I was interested in this since I knew the area secondary to almost relocating there. I kinda have my fingers crossed he doesn't fit the recent "right wing extremist" meme

Anonymous said...

I can't figure out whether you are naive or just downright insensitive: "Gaffney can return to its peaceful nature again." Tell it to the victims' families and neighbor. My late husband was from Gaffney, and his family (all neighbors of 3 of the victims) are in deep grief.

Randy said...

Anonymous, in this case - myopic. You're 100% right, the victims' families and those close to them will be in grief for a while. My heart goes out to them. For them, the world has ever changed and Gaffney can not be the same as it was. Every thing about the town will remind them of the ones they loved.

Perhaps one of the best ways to honor the victims is to allow this town to return to it's "peaceful nature". I know a man who chose Gaffney for his new home town straight from the map. Once he visited, he knew this was where he wanted to retire.

You and your extended family have my deepest sympathies and my respect. The one thing that I would offer is that now some of the questions have been answered and the wounds can begin to hesl.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Feel free to contact me directly or here again if you'd like. You can reach me directly, by clicking on "View Profile" on the right, then clicking on "Email".

Matthew Tripp said...

The wheel of Buddhist terms poster Velcro modular wall mural game. Doctoral dissertation for philosophy, title: The Interpenetration of Buddhist Practice and Classroom Teaching. Technocracy Ethics USA censorship Chinese military intelligence genius clones.

PARASITIC SPECIES INFESTATION alien robot telescope spaceship: audiobook getting things done (GTD is the tag), the first few tracks of PALE BLUE DOT are good, as we transition to a knowledge based global society

as computing power increases exponentially and ubiquitous web enabled sensors allow for immersion in context relevant buddhist or ethics perspective, national broadband plan...

dharmaprinting.com augmented reality sociology subject index and table of contents Chinese military intelligence genius clones life energy word abacus sustainability transmission measurement context mapping twitter.com/globalcide is me Google for EXTINCTCULTURE please let me know what you think about this topic computer.org/pervasive (FOLDING@HOME and BIONIC software's, engineering 450 million new species to make deserts habitable or telepathic ecosystem maintenance) autodesk inventor prototyping software for genetics use the audio book list on audibles.com to build course of life coaching training young orphan people to be CIA certified ethical hackers download free at nowtorrents.com because if the current post world war 2 education system was meant to produce factory workers (not critical thinking curriculum video from best teacher nationally then teachers answer questions and do research while the kids watch, pause for Q+A, the videos podshifter software for iTunesU ) how much worse is this continuation of using the bible koran instead of critical mass ecosystem dynamics physics logistics?

google for flashcard database

subliminal education psychological profiling HDTV prenhall.com/dabbagh/

MIT OCW designing your life. The art of war flashcard deck, wikipedia article audio book the 48 laws of power... RAW stem cells movies: Eagle EYE, Minority Report, (gps and audio recording + all video survelance to DVR on web for all probation and parole ankle monitors, put more people on them and use software to monitor them, the probation or parolee pays for the ankle monitor and then gives it back to the probation office then the next probation pays for it again, thus buying another one) broadcom is makeing new version of these chips every two months now GPS + Bluetooth + WiFi + FM combo chip)
audio + video security DVR in juvinile prisons with audiobooks streaming leave the headphones you buy behind for the next inmate

lifehack.org/articles/productivity/the-ultimate-student-resource-list.html

selfmadescholar.com/b/self-education-resource-list

web 2.0 directories: ziipa.com and go2web20.net USE THE TAGS cloud, also lifehacker.com and lifehack.org SHARE 99ebooks.blogspot.com via: care2.com/click2donate or thehungersite.com and gizmodo.com/tag/ecomodo click every tab every day with iMacro, smarterfox, delicious, colorful tabs, TOOMANYTABS, WebMynd extensions for the new firefox 3.5 browser.

youtube.com/homeproject