TRAGEDY

It seems there is a serial killer on the loose in Gaffney, SC (about an hour from my hometown). This past week, he killed a lady and her mother (story below). I worked with Gena as her Guidance Counselor a few years ago. I'm shocked.... I've never known someone to be murdered. It is a tragedy and I understand that 4 people have been killed this week, including a teenage girl.



Calhoun Academy teacher, mother found shot to death
By Rick Spruill
Wednesday, July 1, 2009


Two people were found shot to death at a home at 114 Buck Shoals Road in the northwest corner of Cherokee County.


Investigators from the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division converged at 114 Buck Shoals Road in the northwest corner of Cherokee County on Wednesday afternoon after two people were found shot to death inside.


Cherokee County Sheriff Bill Blanton is asking for the public's help in investigating Wednesday's shooting at a home in the northwest corner of Cherokee County. A blue van of unknown make and model was seen leaving the home's driveway at about 3 p.m., about 30 minutes before the bodies were found.


GAFFNEY — Anderson School District Five officials are mourning the loss of a Calhoun Academy of the Arts teacher who was found bound and shot, along with her mother, in a Cherokee home Wednesday afternoon.

Betty Bagley, Anderson School District Five superintendent, said Cherokee County sheriff’s officials had identified one of the two women as Gena Linda Parker, a third-grade teacher at the academy in Anderson.

Cherokee County neighbors said Hazel Linder and Gena, her daughter, were found by Gena’s husband, Scott Parker. Scott Parker is a former T.L. Hanna High School football coach, and is now an assistant principal at Ninety-Six High School in Greenwood County.

Cody Sossaman, editor of the Gaffney Ledger newspaper, said he lives near Linder on Buck Shoals Road.

He said the discovery of Linder and Parker following the shooting death of 63-year-old Kline Wilson Cash, who lived on Battleground Road, had the neighborhood “worried and scared.” The two homes are about six miles apart.

Cash was found by his wife after being shot Saturday evening in his home. Both houses have “Hay for Sale” signs in the yards.

Officials have declined to speculate about a connection between the signs and the killings.

“We don’t live very far from Hazel,” Sossaman said. “She’s just a nice lady. I can’t imagine how or why this has happened.”

Bagley said, “We’ve lost a wonderful, master teacher in Gena. She was always enthusiastic, caring, and loving, both for her children and for her school. She was the same person, year after year after year. She was enthusiastic, and very strong in her faith.”

Mary Michaels of Gaffney, who taught Gena Linder and Scott Parker at Gaffney High School, said both were extremely popular and loved as High School students.

“Gena and Scott, they were two of the finest. He played football here.”

“They were very involved in the school. I know Gena was a member of the Beta Club. They were very popular and extremely well thought of. We in Gaffney followed his career at Hanna because we thought so much of him.”