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

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."

This is my third and final post on the Superbike quadruple homicides that took place in Chesnee, South Carolina in 2003. I will be discussing persons-on-interest and how the evidence in the murders supports taking a stronger look at some of them and doesn't support overfocusing on certain persons to the exclusion of better suspects.

Before I begin this discussion of what I read on the Internet concerning certain persons-of-interest, I want to state that nothing I am putting forth here is any accusation of guilt; no one has been proven to have committed these crimes and they are innocent in the eyes of the law until proven otherwise in a court of law. However, if certain people behaved in certain ways and said certain things that are concerning, then it is not unreasonable to expect that the investigators from the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Department should have properly and thoroughly investigated these persons, which, from what I read on the Internet, they did not.

There are three main persons-of-interest in the Superbike murders. As in all crimes, the last person to see the victims alive, the first person to see them dead, and anyone who might have had access to the scene in between those times are the persons-of-interest and each needs to be investigated and eliminated.

I want to start with the least likely person-of-interest in these crimes which is the man in the composite the Sheriff's Department has been dogging for almost nine years, claiming straight out that he is involved in the homicides. First of all, from everything I read on the Internet, there is not one shred of evidence linking this unknown man, this customer who was not the last person in the business before the homicides, to the crimes. There is no unknown DNA or fingerprints that can be linked to anyone, so no match is ever going to pop up in CODIS linking some felon to the Superbike murders. Unless this man one day is arrested for the commission of another crime and a firearm is found on his person or in his car or apartment that matches the ballistics in these homicides, then this avenue is pretty much worthless. The only other possibility is that someone rats him out, a warrant is gotten, and the detectives find the gun at his residence. Could it happen? Sure. Not likely, but I am all for a miracle.

Problem is, the man in the composite is the least likely of the three persons-of-interest to have committed the crime. Why? First of all, it is blatantly stupid and hard to believe that this man would go to the business, spend a relatively long time chatting with the people there, sit on a motorcycle, and let all the other customers see his face if he were planning to blow everyone away that day. Furthermore, why would he leave the business and come back to kill everyone? Why not hang around until there were no customers were there or just kill a customer or two if you are psychopathic enough to blow away the others? And since you have let someone see your face, the customer who inspired the composite, why not just kill that man so you don't have a witness left behind to identify you? I find the unknown customer in the composite a red herring of a lead that, yes, should have been followed up but he would not be my top choice of focus.

Let's back up to the last person who was in the business before the murders went down. As I read on the Internet, he was a reasonable person-of-interest and he has not been entirely eliminated. The best reason to look at him was the simple fact he was there right before it all went down and, if he killed everyone and drove off, there would be no witnesses to say it was him. However, his credit card was swiped right before he left, so he would have to be a blazing idiot or extremely angry. Now, the first he was not from what I have read on the Internet; the second was possible. He was a bit annoyed with the shop that day. And, because of this, he needed to be eliminated as a suspect. As I read on the Internet, he certainly had firearms and he refused to take a polygraph. However, it seems, he might have an excellent alibi. As I read on the Internet, his truck was seen going by a convenience store in a video with a time stamp on it that was only two minutes after the last shot was fired. That shot was made at 2:52 pm and his truck was seen  going by at 2:54 pm. Now, the drive from the shop to the store is 4.2 miles and supposedly takes eleven minutes according to Google. I test drove that road in a sports car and I was able to cut the time in half.

I was unable to learn from the stuff I read on the Internet whether the detectives had double-checked the accuracy of the clock associated with the video; if the time was off by a few minutes, this could disqualify the alibi of the last customer. However, the time would have to be quite a bit off because it took me around five minutes to drive like a hellion in a small sports car and I had to time leaving the parking lot just before I saw a car coming, so I could pull out in front of it and hope to get a clear road all the way to the store with no slow boat in front of me or anyone pulling on to the road and ruining my speedy run. In fact, it took me a dozen runs to get lucky enough to have no traffic impede me and get my speed down to five minutes. The last customer/person-of-interest was driving an old truck which was pulling a motorcycle, so unless the clock was seriously off (by at least five or six minutes), there is no way he could have made it down the road that quickly. However, the clock should still have been checked so that this man could have been solidly eliminated as a suspect and he wasn't.

Although this would be my second-in-line person-of-interest, I think his alibi could hold, the credit card swipe with his name makes it rather unlikely that he would then commit the homicides, and, although he was a bit annoyed, there is nothing in particular that makes me think he had enough motive to kill everyone there, starting with Beverly Guy.

Now, to my Number One person-of-interest, Noel Lee. Again, I will state that I have no proof from what I read on the Internet that there is evidence to arrest and convict this man. He is only a person-of-interest to me and, in the eyes of the Sheriff's Department, not a person-of-interest at all. How this can be mystifies me. Even if he is innocent of the crime, he should have been investigated and eliminated because he was, as I read on the Internet and you can actually read this on the Internet and even see him say so in Geraldo's video, that he was the one to discover the bodies and make the 911 call. The only reason I mention his name here is because he willingly did so with his appearance on television which means he was not attempting to keep his identity a secret.

The first reason Noel Lee must be a person-of-interest is because he was the one to discover the bodies. As we have seen in many crimes, often the perpetrator shows up on the scene to "find the bodies" because that way. he can have an excuse for being seen there in case he was indeed seen there (or his vehicle was seen there or in the area) and, if he is worried his fingerprints are there or he has blood on his clothing, he can say he touched things when he arrived or he touched the bodies in an attempt to check on their condition or do CPR. To be clear, from what I read on the Internet, Noel Lee, who discovered the bodies, did not have blood on his person or clothing and he did not touch the bodies. He only touched the phone in the business and there is no information available as to whether his fingerprints were found anywhere (supposedly only the fingerprints of the victims were found which is a bit odd considering this is a place full of customers). However, it is unlikely the killer touched anything anyway as this all went down very quickly. The only  places he might have touched would have been the outside door and the swinging doors between the front showroom and the back work area. He may have been wearing gloves.

The second reason Noel Lee should be a person-of-interest is because he has no alibi that I know of (from what I read on the Internet). He phoned the business from his home phone and spoke to Beverly Guy about picking up some tickets. As I read on the Internet, that call was placed at 2:25 pm. The shootings took place around 2:50 pm with the last shot being fired at 2:52 pm. Lee placed the 911 call at 3:12.

Noel Lee's home is 11.4 miles from the shop. Again, Google states a rather slow drive with nearly thirty minutes required. Considering I halved the drive to the convenience store in my sports car, I find it highly likely Lee could drive the distance to the shop in his BMW in half that time or less considering he states, as I read on the Internet, that there were no other cars at all on the road on his way to the shop. If he left the house directly after hanging up the phone, he could have been in the store by the time the shootings went down.

From what I read on the Internet, Noel Lee's story changes from his first to his second interview and he says a number of things which are rather peculiar and raise red flags; this is another reason he should have been looked at more closely.

As I read on the Internet:

In his first interview he states: He tells Beverly Guy he is on his way to pick up the tickets, arrives at the store, and thinks his friends are playing a joke on him by lying in blood on the sidewalk in front of the store; then he stated, "I’m calling 911 and immediately went to the phone inside the front show room on the wall and called 911. She asked me if they was anybody down and I told her I see his mom down in the back showroom and she said is there anybody else down? I said I don’t know. I’m not walking into the back of this place. She said well go back outside and wait on 911 to arrive. So I walked back out front and waited on you guys to get here." He also states he hadn't been around the business within the last two weeks.

In his second interview, two years later, he states: " For some strange reason, I decided to take a shower instead of just throwing my clothes on and going up there." And he is talking to his girlfriend the entire time while he is driving. In fact, she tells him not to call 911 from across the street (or to use his cell phone) but tells him to go inside the business (where the killer might still be) to make the phone call. He claims she told him that "if you leave and somebody sees you leave, they are going to think you did it." So he steps over his friend's body that is blocking the door and goes in to make the 911 call. This time he claims he said something totally different to the operator, "I said I need to go see if the fourth person is here because they were normally four people here and she said do not go into that back room because you do not know who else is there." He also states he was at the business the previous weekend.

From what I read on the Internet, Lee states that he went inside without a gun because he wasn't thinking and thought if he could get help there quickly, he could save their lives. Yet, in his 911 call, he doesn't get around very quickly to requesting medical assistance; in fact, his whole demeanor is rather breezy. He also states that he looked to see if Brian Lucas's chest was moving up and down and he was going to give him CPR. Apparently, he never does and he says he never saw his chest move up and down during the time it took for the news helicopter to fly overhead.

There was twenty minutes from the time the last shot was fired until the 911 call leaving Noel Lee enough time to leave the scene, ditch a weapon and wash his hands (he had moonshine available in his vehicle and water is available nearby) and come back. A GSR test was listed (as I read on the Internet) but the results were not. Likewise, there was something about a polygraph but further details were not available. Lee has told others he passed one. No tickets were noted to be found inside Superbike nor on Lee (but it was not stated that his clothing or pockets or wallet or vehicle were examined). Lee states he could see the hands of Scott Ponder, yet this would have been impossible by the time he arrived as Ponder's hands were not visible due to the position he was expired in. 

Lee's behavior following the murders was considered odd by a number of people who felt he showed little sadness or concern over his friend's deaths. He claims in the second interview that I read on the Internet that he is on medication to keep him from "wigging out" and he has had seizures since the stress of his first marriage and short-term memory problems which causes him to forget things. Also, I read on the Internet, a curious bit of questioning about Lee having left the scene and come back which he said he was 100% positive he didn't do and "would put his hand on a Bible" to attest to that fact. As to his statement that he "for some strange reason" decided to take a shower, statement analysis of this wording indicates deception; first of all, it is odd Lee would decide to take a shower just to go pick up some tickets and take one at that time for no reason, which is exactly why he has to say "for some strange reason;" it is behavior that doesn't make sense. The only good reason a shower would be useful at that time is to delay his arrival at the shop until after the murders go down.

One more strange statement is useful to analyze; that Lee thought his friends were playing a trick on him  by pretending to be dead on the sidewalk and he saw them and told them, "Joke's over." In many crimes when a guilty party gives an odd statement in explanation of what they did or thought, what they are doing is using a previous event (because it did happen and then speaking of it is a sort of truthful thing) and moving it forward to another time or situation. My question would be, "Did someone tell Noel Lee, "Joke's over." And if so, what joke did they think it was?

A number of people state Lee had a falling out with Scott Ponder and Brian Lucas and was told not to come around the shop. Yet, he is supposedly picking up tickets that day from Scott. Just before the last customer leaves, that customer overhears Beverly Guy having a heated conversation with someone, he believes she is on the phone with because he doesn't hear another voice or see anyone else. This is exactly the time Noel Lee made his call to Guy. Twenty-five minutes later, Guy is the first one shot in the quadruple homicides.

I want to point out to those who think this might have been a professional hit: there was nothing particular professional about it. Eighteen rounds were fired to kill four people, a number of them completely missing their target. The shots were fired at relatively close range so an average person would have little trouble hitting their target (and, in spite of this, as I read on the Internet, the shooter missed Sherbert and the two escaping men a couple of times).  The victims were capped in the head only after they were immobile, so this didn't require much talent either. The killer left all the shell casings on the floor which meant he left evidence. This is not a brilliant crime nor an overly skilled one. It was simply opportunistic. No one saw the killer commit the crime and he got away with it.

From what I read on the Internet, there was no follow-up on Noel Lee, no phone records checked to see if he was on the phone with his girlfriend during the drive to Superbike, no serious interrogation, nothing of substance that indicates the detectives considered Lee a serious person-of-interest or even attempted to eliminate him through aggressive investigation.

Noel Lee just may be an oddly behaving fellow with the bad luck to come upon his friends just as they had been shot. But in almost nine years from the very first day, obvious persons-of-interest like Lee were ignored while one questionable person-of-interest got all the attention. This is an egregious failure of the Sheriff's Department to handle the case properly, if one can call this handling the case at all.

Almost no case so mishandled from the start has a prayer of making it to prosecution. Evidence that should have been located and confiscated early on is likely long gone. For a case with no DNA or fingerprints, the loss of time may be a justice killer. All we can hope now is that by my going public with all the information I have read on the Internet, someone with information and evidence will come forward and, by the miracle all the families hope for, justice can still be served. 

And, if it can't be, we need to work to make sure our law enforcement agencies receive better training, more funding, and have criminal profilers in place when the case is fresh so that egos and politics don't squash the input of these profilers or of private investigators who come in years later and find the case has been wrongly pursued. We need to insure that the families and citizens have the right to hold their police agencies accountable for their work product, that new laws are instituted - "Sunshine Laws" -laws that require cases to be reviewed by an independent panel after a specific number of years in order to ensure oversight of case handling and police honesty and professionalism. 

Something needs to be done. The failure of the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Department to solve a solvable crime for nearly a decade is not an anomaly in the world of criminal investigations. Cold case after cold case get shelved for similar failures and we are not doing a thing to change a system that is clearly not working.

 See also: Criminal Profilng Topic of the Day: I Read it on the Internet: Superbike Murders - Part Two, Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: I Read it on the Internet: Superbike Murders - Part One

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

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

May 19, 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.

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.

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

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."

Almost nine years has gone by since four people were brutally gunned down at Superbike Motorsports in Chesnee, South Carolina in 2003. And in all those years, the only thing the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Department will tell the family and community as to what they are looking at is one man who was seen in the business prior to the homicides that no one knows who he is. This is their one and only suspect in the murders. And, yes, I can call him their one and only suspect because Sheriff Chuck Wright clearly stated this to the press when he said, "This fellow will tell us exactly what happened in the shop that day."

Now, since Sheriff Chuck Wright surely always tells the truth and is always straight with the citizens of his county, what does that statement tell you? You don't need to be a profiler or statement analyst to interpret those words. Sheriff Wright is telling us the man in the composite was involved in the homicides either as the shooter or a co-conspirator. And because he is telling us this, then by default,  he is eliminating the person I believe all the evidence that I read on the Internet points to.


And why does Sheriff Wright know that the man in the composite is involved in the crime? Is it because he has any evidence supporting his involvement? Absolutely not. From all the evidence that I read on the Internet, there was not one witness to the crime to say that the man in the composite was involved nor were any statements about this man in the composite made that would indicate anyone saw him elsewhere tossing a gun or speeding off in a car and no one has heard a man of this description talking about involvement in the crime. In fact, the only time the man in the composite was seen or heard was in the store that day and the only one to say about anything about him is the man who gave the description for the composite (which after eight years he decided should be changed because it wasn't quite right). And what was this suspicious man doing? Looking at a motorcycle, trying to decide if he was going to buy it. What a crime.


So, what makes this man the one and only suspect for Sheriff Chuck Wright? I read on the Internet that if the man had no involvement in the crime, he would have come forward and admitted he was the one in Superbike that day shopping for a motorcycle because folks in South Carolina, unlike other places in the country, would always come forward if they were innocent, even if they had a criminal record and distrusted cops. And, because this man never gave the police a call, it means he is involved in the crime.


Also, I read on the Internet, it was terribly suspicious that the owner didn't have his name written down on the paperwork, like the man was hiding his identity. Did the Sheriff ever consider that perhaps this customer was being giving the hard sell?

"Hey, why don't I get the paperwork started and the bike cleaned up for you and then you can come back and sign everything?"

And, then, either the guy realized he couldn't afford the bike and decided not to come back and buy it or he heard about the murders and had no reason to come back. Once he saw his face being shown on television as a person of suspicion, he decided (wisely in my opinion considering the Sheriff is claiming he is involved in the crime without a shred of evidence and I know this because I read about it on the Internet), to pretend he never entered Superbike Motorsports that day.

MOST IMPORTANT:  What if that guy left Superbike, went down the street to buy a soda, came back and saw the killer leaving the crime scene? Now, he will never come forward. Thank you, Sheriff Wright, for impeding the investigation by totally scaring off a possibly excellent witness.


Now, to analyzing motive: why would this man in the composite check out the place, leave, and come back a short time later and blow everyone away? What was the motive? From what I read on the Internet, the motive the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Department has assigned to this crime is price gouging. Yes, supposedly some guy got cheated out of some money, perhaps via an Internet transaction with the shop, and decided to kill everyone there over the issue. Now, I also read on the Internet that there was no evidence of anyone angrily communicating with owner or anyone else in the shop in the days, weeks, or even months prior to the murder about being ripped off as on would expect if someone's anger was escalating to the point of a coldbloodedly murdering everyone in the business. Also, one would expect someone furious about being cheated out of money to steal his money back from the business or take something else of worth but, from what I read on the Internet, nothing was taken from inside the business.


So where did Spartanburg County Sheriff's Department come up with this idea of price gouging as a motive? I read on the Internet it seems like they just thought that could be a possible reason for the murders. The only other motive that I read on the Internet they seemed to have considered is something to do with drugs although I also have read on the Internet that there is no evidence that drugs had a thing to do with these murders. The detectives may be open to receiving all sorts of tips and leads concerning price gouging, drug dealing, and any other sort of possible motive leading to homicide (as they should), and they may follow them up (as they should), but, I can tell you from what I read on the Internet, that there is only one person-of-interest with a solid motive and to whom the evidence points (as I have determined by reading stuff on the Internet) and he is not the man in the composite. Note: I am not saying that the man in the composite could not be involved in the crime or shouldn't be investigated. I am simply saying there is no evidence linking that man in the composite to the crime and he should not be considered the top person-of-interest nor identified as a perpetrator as the Sheriff has done.


And while the person-of interest I am alluding to may not be guilty of the crimes, he certainly should be investigated and eventually charged if sufficient evidence supports charges or he should be eliminated as a suspect if the investigation determines he is not involved in the murders. I can tell you without question having read the information on the Internet that this man was never properly investigated nor eliminated; he has no alibi for the time of the murders, he was deceptive in his interviews, he had the opportunity and a credible motive.


If nothing else, I can tell you from what I have read on the Internet, he is a far stronger suspect than that man in the composite that Sheriff Chuck Young keeps using as his fall guy for a poorly handled and failed investigation.

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


Criminal Profiler Pat Brown


May 17, 2012

I Read it on the Internet: Superbike Murders - Part Two

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.

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

The Victims of the Motorbike Motorsports Murders

Eight years ago on November 6, 2003 four people were gunned down in cold blood in Chesnee, South Carolina in the middle of an ordinary work day at the Superbike Motorsports, a shop that sold motorcycles. The murdered were the owner, Scott Ponder, his mother Beverly Guy, his best friend and right hand business man Brian Lucas, and a new employee who was cleaning up bikes in the back, Chris Sherbert. Someone came into the business shot them all dead in the middle of the day when there were no witnesses in the building to identify the shooter.

Zero progress has been made in solving this crime. Why? In my opinion, not because it is unsolvable or difficult to solve or because that one person won't come forward and identify himself (the man police claim is the key to the crime, in fact, the man they claim is involved in the crime, the man they have been showing a composite of, albeit now an altered composite, for year upon year). It won't be solved because the police refuse to believe the evidence in front of them or refuse to investigate it for some reason. I know because I spent a week in Spartanburg County, South Carolina working with the Sheriff's department, going through the files, analyzing every photo and bit of evidence, and running an experiment to test how long it took to drive from the shop to a convenience store that would help rule in or rule out one suspect. I have read all the interviews.

After I left, the police told the family I was just a celebrity whose profile wasn't worth anything. Yet, they refuse to show that profile to the family and tell them what is wrong with it. They won't reveal any of what I said because it is damning to their reputation, their analysis and handling of the investigation. I can't tell you what I came up with, what the evidence shows, because I signed a contract that states I will not release the specifics of the evidence. And because of this I have remained quiet for years hoping that they would move forward with the profile analysis and investigate properly. However, ever since AMW rolled into town and harped yet again on that composite of some unknown custom/person-of-interest again, I have just been steaming. What a bloody sham.

I can't tell you what the evidence is but I can tell you this. None of the four murder victims were involved in any drug operation. The motive for the crime wasn't some kind of drug deal gone bad. There is no reason to believe drugs were ever at the business nor hidden in motorcycles coming in and out of the business, so this isn't a falling out over drugs.

Nothing was taken from the business, so this wasn't a robbery. Nothing was damaged in the business, so this wasn't retaliation. The police got the order of the shooting wrong because they misunderstood the ballistics; the guy in the back, Chris Sherbert, was not shot first. The way the shooting went down shows me that the murders were personal and the was a specific reason the four were shot in the order in which they were shot. Also, because nothing was touched in the shop shows me that the murders were not about money. This was the crime of a psychopath who had a falling out with certain people at the business.

Is there someone who fits this description who should be known to the police? You bet there is. Not only is he known but he was interviewed twice and his statements are off-the-wall for bizarre and deceptive. Did he have an alibi for the time of the crime? No. Could he have committed the crime? Yes. When I showed the police exactly what was peculiar about his statements, where he was clearly lying, exactly how he could have committed the crime and why, what was their response? They just said they didn't think it was him.

What did they tell the family? They told him they had investigated the man thoroughly. That is a blatant untruth because I know from the files that the man's cock-and-bull story was never followed up. Why? I have no idea. Why not now? Probably because it would make them look bad to suddenly change course and state they ignored someone who should have been investigated right in the beginning.

Scared schmuck who is NEVER coming forward

I rarely speak out against a police department after I work with them but I am to the point of disgust with being slandered by them to the family and their refusal to come clean with their failure to solve this case in eight years and why. I hope some media outlet and the family finally get fed up with this smoke-and-mirrors game being played by the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Department and get to the bottom of this crime in which the motive is still a mystery.Like hell it is. If you follow the evidence and the obvious person-of-interest it becomes clear as day. If you keep trying to pin the crime on some poor scared schmuck who Sheriff Wright claims should not be worried about identifying himself in spite of the fact he states, "This fellow will tell us exactly what happened in the shop that day,"  you won't get very far.

Actually, all Sheriff Wright has to do to solve this crime is follow the evidence. Heck, he could even watch Geraldo's videotaped interview and get a pretty good start.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

May 15, 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.

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Hurray! The Madeleine McCann Case is Near to being Solved!

"[We are] seeking to bring closure to the case," Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood told the BBC. "I am satisfied that the systems and processes that we are bringing to this set of circumstances will give us the best opportunity to find those investigative opportunities that we can then present to our colleagues in Portugal."

And, clearly, those 195 new leads culled from a years worth of work by the MET's 37-man team should indeed inspire the Portuguese police to reopen the case and get to work following up these valuable clues (provided to me by an unnamed unreliable source) which surely will result in the recovery of a living Madeleine McCann who can then be united with her long-suffering parents whose own five-year-long investigation using private detectives and reportedly spending millions in donated money has been a miserable failure.

But, now it is hoped that 195 new clues unearthed by the stellar British law enforcement agency previously overlooked by the bumbling Portuguese police will now be further investigated by this incompetent bunch of tossers.

A Sampling of the  New Clues (provided to me by an unnamed unreliable source)

1. A Spanish woman saw a blonde child
2. An Italian woman saw a blond child
3. A Portuguese man saw a blond child
4. A British couple saw a blond child
5. A French couple saw a blond child
6. A Spanish woman heard a rumor
7. An Italian woman heard a rumor
8. A Portuguese man heard a rumor
9. A British couple heard a rumor
10. A French couple heard a rumor
11. A Spanish woman saw a creepy man
12. An Italian woman saw a creepy man
13. A Portuguese man saw a creepy man
14. A British couple saw a creepy man
15. A French couple saw a creepy man
16. A Spanish woman saw a creepy woman
17. An Italian woman saw a creepy woman
18. A Portuguese man saw a creepy woman
19. A British couple saw a creepy woman
20. A French couple saw a creepy woman

I am hoping the readers of this blog will see that there is much hope now that the case of missing Madeleine McCann will be reopened, quickly solved, and the child returned home to her family.

Cost of finding 185 totally useless clues? 3.2 million dollars of UK taxpayer money

Worth to the McCann media spin? Priceless 


 Criminal Profiler Pat Brown