S.C. buries victims of serial killer

GAFFNEY, S.C., July 5 (UPI) -- Hundreds of people mourned an 83-year-old woman and her daughter Sunday, two of five victims of a serial killer in South Carolina, police said.

Police are conducting a manhunt and have released a sketch of the man wanted in the shooting death of five people, including Hazel Linder and her daughter, Gena Linder Parker, 50, who were found Wednesday in Linder's home.

Fear gripped rural Cherokee County, where all the killings happened, the Gaston (S.C.) Gazette reported.

"I don't think nobody feels secure," Gaffney resident Kay Parker told the Gazette. "I won't let my husband go out to the garden unless he takes his gun with him. I said, 'I'd rather have you than have vegetables.'"

Mourners packed First Baptist Church in Gaffney Sunday and recalled the two slain women as kind and full of faith.

"They were examples of what Christianity is all about," Joyce Long said. "They loved the Lord so much."

FBI and state investigators have joined in the investigation.

A 15-year-old girl became the fifth victim Saturday, dying less than two days after being shot. Abby Tyler died Saturday morning at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, The Gaffney (S.C.) Ledger reported.

She was shot in the head by a man who opened fire Thursday on her and her father at his store, Tyler Home Center. Her father, Stephen Tyler, died at the store.

The other victim, Kline Cash, a peach farmer, was shot dead last weekend.