The fear generated in Cherokee County over four murders by a serial killer has the phone ringing almost constantly at Crimestoppers in Columbia, which is handling all anonymous tips in the cases. It has received more than 50 calls in the last two days about the murders.
"People are calling in with names," says the Crimestoppers coordinator of the Midlands, who asked that her identity not be revealed. "They've seen the composite and say, 'Okay, this person really, really looks like such-and-such and this is his location.' We've got tips on people walking down the street that look like, that resemble the composite."
When Crimestoppers gets the tips it relays the information immediately to investigators in Cherokee County. It's also working with the South Carolina Information and Intelligence Center, known as the Fusion Center, to help investigators by running license tags and doing some of the other investigative work, saving time for detectives in the field. The center is run by the State Law Enforcement Division but includes other state and federal law enforcement agencies.
Having a central clearinghouse for the information makes it easier to spot trends. "If there's something that comes in and this person is named three or four times, we're going to get on the phone to Cherokee County, or what other county we're working for at the point in time, and say, 'Look, this is information we've got. This guy's been mentioned three times. We just wanted to point that out to you.' I guess you could say that we analyze the information that comes in," the coordinator says.
They're also trained to ask questions that can bring out information that a caller might not realize is important.
She stresses that all calls are anonymous. A caller is assigned a number so names are never used.
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