Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: I Read it on the Internet: Superbike Murders - Part Two

Note: The phrase "I read it on the Internet" is included in this original post because at the time it was written, Sheriff Wright had claimed I never worked with the department and everything I know of the case "I read on the Internet." Clearly, I did NOT get my information from the Internet but from police files but if Wright was willing to make that statement, I was willing to write exactly what "I read on the Internet."

The first place any profiler or detective should start in doing an analysis of a case is with the crime scene, not with gut feelings, tips, rumors, or even suspects. The crime scene tells us exactly what happened and often, why it happened, and then who most likely made it happen.

Sometimes the department will keep secret exactly how a crime went down in hopes that when they interview a possible suspect, that person will describe the scenario and, if it matches what actually happened, the detectives will have a good clue that this person knows more than the general public as to the crime elements. However, after almost nine years and no suspect in sight, the Superbike murders would be better served getting the truth out to the public and seeing what it shakes out. For this reason, I feel the forwarding of the case will be helped by an accurate description of what occurred. Also, since Sheriff Chuck Wright and the Department have repeatedly put forth a theory that is clearly not based on any evidence I read on the Internet and has had no problem laying out their version of the order of the shootings, I will follow their lead and do so as well.

To get an overview of the crime scene and Department's conclusions, you can view location of the scene and description of how they say it went down with this television offering by Geraldo Rivera.

The Spartanburg County Sheriff's Department (SPSO) is adamant from what I read on the Internet that the shooter came in the back bay door of the business shot Chris Sherbert first as he was cleaning up a motorcycle, then went through the swinging door into the shop and encountered Beverly Guy leaving the bathroom or the office and shot her, and then shot Brian Lucas and Scott Ponder as they tried to escape out the front door. As I read on the Internet, seventeen rounds were fired requiring a changing of clips. The Department has never explained or at least I never read it on the Internet just when the shooter did this in the midst of shooting the three in the front room and there is no explanation, if he had to change clips at that point, why the two men didn't escape further while he was doing so. They have never explained when the shooter shot them in the bodies and when he shot them in the head. They never explained why, if the shooter mixed his ammunition with eleven silver casings and seven brass (as I read on the Internet) and he shot the victims from the back of the store to the front, each of the victims (except Guy) ended up with a bullet in the head that had a brass casing (as I also read on the Internet).

I believe the Department's refusal to explain  (as I read on the Internet) that oddity lies with their need to develop a scenario that matches their theory that the unknown guy in the composite first went after the employee cleaning up the bike he was supposed to buy and then went after everyone else. Not that this makes great sense because if you come in the back way and start the shooting there, you are unaware of who is out front and by the time you get there, other customers may have come in. Besides, your anger should be with Scott Ponder and he should be the most important target and normally a killer would choose him to start with. Perhaps the thinking is that the perpetrator didn't want his vehicle seen so he parked in the back and came in that way and then went back that way to his vehicle. Nothing wrong with this theory and, in fact, it still could be true if the guy walked past Christ Sherbert to the front, did his shootings, and then return to get Sherbert. But, the detectives, from what I read on the Internet refuse to even allow for this possibility and I think this stubbornness lies in their desire to make Sherbert the first victim of the guy in the composite and, in doing so, choose to ignore the ballistics evidence. But it is terribly important as it shows exactly what the shooter did and why as you will see.

From what I read on the Internet, I propose this scenario of how the shootings went down:

The behaviors of the victims clearly indicate Beverly Guy was shot first. If the killer had been intent on shooting Ponder or Lucas first and pulled out a gun in the front room, he would likely have shot the men where they stood considering how close the shooter was to these two men. However, the killer shot them only after they were in motion, running toward the front door in order to escape. Something clearly set them off and this would be the shooting of Guy. Once that shot (nickel casings) was fired directly at Guy’s head (she turned away) and then chest, the shooter being face to face with her, the men made a break for it.  The next shot hit Brian Lucas in the backside causing him to collapse in the door, with Scott Ponder leaping over him; then the shots to Ponder’s back took him down to the ground (all nickel casings). He changed clips to the brass magazine.

At this point the shooter knew there was one more person he needed to deal with and he turned and went back through the swinging doors into the work area. There was music on in both the front and back so it is questionable as to whether Sherbert actually knew the others had been shot down. It is possible he did hear the shots but by the time he realized what was going on, the shooter had already entered the back of the shop. The shooter fired as soon as he came through the swinging door approximately from the area of three bikes to the left of Brass Casings 21 and 22. The trajectory is in perfect line with the back storage room where the bullets went through the boxes. The shooter’s position would be in the general area where the crescent wrench with the black handle was found should Sherbert have thrown it at the shooter in a desperate attempt to stop him. This evidence is proof that Sherbert did see him coming and that the shooter was coming at him from the swinging doors. He was the final victim, not the first victim. Sherbert likely was ducking behind the motorcycle he was working on as soon as he saw the killer coming toward him with a gun.

 He then moved in on Sherbert who had no way to stand up from behind the motorcycle and run out the bay door without getting shot. The shooter came up over him and shot him in the back and chest and then capped him with a shot to the head.  

The shooter then returned to the front of the business to finish off his victims. He shot  Lucas once in the head. It is during this time (or while the shooter was in the back) I believe Ponder, still alive but knowing he was not going to make it, dialed 33 on his phone and pressed send, attempting to reach his wife with a final goodbye and, perhaps, an attempt to identify the shooter to her. Ponder appears to have pushed himself up on his knees with his left arm and dialed his phone with his free right hand and pressed the send button at 2:52. This was likely very within a minute or seconds before the shooter capped him in the head.  I do not agree with the theory I read on the Internet that Ponder dialed the phone number while running in a panic over his friend and through the glass front door. I have attempted to recreate this scenario and found it impossible to hit the three buttons on the phone while in this kind of motion. The shots in the head of all four victims apparently ended their lives within seconds as there is no evidence of movement after the last four shots were fired. 

At 3:12 PM, the emergency phone call to 911 comes in from Noel Lee.

This scenario is very important in determining suspects. The scenario shows exactly when the shootings occurred and the time it took for them to go down and what the likely motive was. I will be discussing motives and persons-of-interest based on this scenario an all I have read on the Internet in my next blog post.

 See also: Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: I Read it on the Internet: Superbike Murders - Part One
And
I Read it on the Internet: Superbike Murders - Part Three

and  Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: The Second Tragedy of the Superbike Motorsports Quadruple Murders

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

May 18, 2012

Pat Brown’s ONLY THE TRUTH

Harkening back to the writing styles of the earlier American authors – John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, and Carson McCullers, "Only the Truth" is a story of soul searching, a psychological mystery which examines the question, “Whom should one love and when should one quit doing so?” Billy Ray, a lonely and rather slow, uneducated African-American man living in the mountains of Arkansas, runs across a mysterious young woman at the railroad tracks. She asks to go home with him and Billy Ray takes her with him as she requests. He comes to love this woman, Charlene, unconditionally. She is the only woman he has ever loved, and life is finally good for Billy Ray. Then Charlene shoots the neighbor and burns down the neighbor’s house. His happy life destroyed, a confused and devastated Billy Ray is at a loss. Is the woman he loves “just a troubled girl” or a psychopathic killer? Billy Ray sets out on a quest to find the truth, only the truth, whether it leads him to be able to save Charlene from a death sentence or it frees him from her spell.