Sixth Anniversary of Superbike Motorsports Murders Friday

This Friday, November 6th, marks the six-year anniversary of one of the darkest days in local history.

It was the day four people were shot to death as they worked at Superbike Motorsports on Parris Bridge Road near Chesnee in Spartanburg County.

Who committed the murders? Why did they do it?

The chief investigator tells News Channel 7's Tom Crabtree those answers may not come unless people keep talking about the Superbike case and bring out new leads.

Raw Interview with Detective Gary

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Recently Tom got an exclusive look inside the Superbike crime scene and an update on the case.

Superbike is a cluttered storage building now. A few small signs are the only reminders of the thriving motorcycle and dirt bike business.

The only reminders that it was where four people were methodically murdered.

"It was almost like the people were taken by surprise," says Senior Investigator William Gary of the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office. "No sign of a struggle."

Mid-afternoon on November 6th, 2003, a customer found Superbike owner Scott Ponder, and his close friend, shop manager Brian Lucas, dead outside the front of the business.

Inside were the bodies of the other two employees: Scott's mother, bookkeeper Beverly Guy, and mechanic Chris Sherbert.

Gary believes one shooter killed all four victims but may have had other help. "It could be that there was somebody here that was a lookout, or somebody that called to let them know there's nobody but employees here. It could be somebody that helped them to plan it."

What was the motive for the murders?

Superbike had customers across the country and big internet business. Could a customer have felt ripped off, angry enough to kill?
"It does sound way out of place, and it doesn't mean that the person responsible for this doesn't have some anger control issues," says Gary. "They probably expressed an anger toward this shop or some displeasement to this shop at some point before this happened. They may not have mentioned it ever again after it happened. It could be your neighbor, co-worker, brother, your husband, your son, or your daughter, your wife. We can't say male or female 100%."

Gary was asked if Superbike or its employees were under investigation prior to the murders for anything criminal. "Nothing that I'm aware of. We get a lot of calls that they were involved in selling drugs, dealing drugs, made people mad in the drug world. There is zero evidence that anything criminal was going on here, especially with drugs."

"I think that was a hit," believes Tom Lucas, father of Superbike victim Brian Lucas.

Tom and his wife, Lorraine, say Brian loved motorcycles and had a special talent for fixing them.

The Lucases say their son's murder is the first and last thing they talk about everyday.
"I believe there was something going on within the business, not saying it was drugs or not saying what it was, but there was something definitely going on in that particular business that went bad," says Tom Lucas. "Something illegal."

To help police dig up leads, the Lucases have turned to places filled with people accused or convicted of doing things illegal: South Carolina state prisons and local jails.

Using an idea they saw on television during a vacation and through Tom's involvement with Crime Stoppers, the Lucases put together decks of playing cards inmates can buy. "A lot of prisoners play cards, and people talk," notes Lorraine.

Each playing card profiles an unsolved South Carolina crime or missing person. Click on the "Gallery" tab at the top of the page to view the cards.

The aces show Brian Lucas and the other Superbike victims.

Authorities say the cards have generated half-a-dozen leads in the Superbike case.

Detectives are still after the big break. They want to know who was driving three vehicles seen at Superbike the day of the murders and identify a man they know only from a police sketch. Investigator Gary says the person in the sketch is the only one officers can't find who they know was in Superbike the day of the murders. "They could have been a lookout. It could've been the person that actually pulled the trigger. We don't know."

Gary says the playing cards recently generated a new lead in the Superbike case, and he's in the process of checking it out.

The Lucases say they will observe Friday's anniversary quietly with family in Ohio.

If you have information that could help authorities solve the Superbike murders, you can remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at 58-CRIME.