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GAFFNEY, S.C. -- Motherless and feeling alone, Raymond Jennings found a home when Gena Parker, his football coach's wife, offered emotional support, cooked him meals and kept in touch with him after he went off to college.
Parker did the same for other players who needed a type of motherly support as they encountered life and her husband's grueling practices at T.L. Hanna High School in Anderson, S.C.
On Sunday, Jennings and several hundred others packed First Baptist Church to mourn Parker, 50, and her mother, Hazel Linder, 83. Police say they're two of five recent victims of a serial killer stalking a community that's staying indoors and arming itself.
Police said Sunday more than a hundred law enforcement officials were running down leads but had made no arrests and announced no suspects, though they continued circulating a sketch of a white man in his 40s wearing a ball cap and said to be driving a Ford Explorer.
“We're working real hard to find a bad guy,” said Gaffney Police Lt. David Clary.
The brazen killings started to attract national media attention over the weekend and were featured Sunday night on the “America's Most Wanted” Web site.
Cherokee County Sheriff Bill Blanton appeared Monday morning on CBS-TV's morning news program and said authorities are making progress. "Every day is bringing us closer," Blanton said.
But there were no arrests overnight. Fortunately, there also were no reports of new attacks.
For the 4 p.m. funeral Sunday, law officers provided security, standing at attention in the middle of the street as the weeping mourners filed out of church behind two caskets.
During July, Gaffney normally has full parks and playgrounds and a buoyant atmosphere befitting the season, said Kay Wylie, a longtime resident who attended the joint funeral service.
Instead, local churches posted guards in their parking lots during Sunday services, she said, and residents stayed inside, with some arming themselves for protection.
“The mood in Gaffney is fear,” she said. “People are not out, the roads are bare.”
Wylie said the two women buried Sunday worked locally as teachers and were widely known for their skill in the classroom and compassion for their students.
The killings began June 27, when the wife of 63-year-old peach farmer Kline Cash found her husband shot dead in their rural home. Then Wednesday, relatives discovered the bodies of Linder and Parker, both bound and shot to death in a separate shooting at Linder's home.
On Thursday, Stephen Tyler and his 15-year-old daughter, Abby, were shot as they worked to close the family's furniture and appliance business near downtown. He died Thursday. Abby fought for her life for two days before dying Saturday at a hospital.
The Herald-Journal of Spartanburg reported that the Tylers' minister at Cherokee Avenue Baptist Church, Clyde Thomas, urged congregants to keep the faith in the face of tragedy. The newspaper said he had a pistol in his office Saturday.
“As Christians, we don't live by explanations. We live by promises. We live by faith, not sight,” Thomas said.
Thomas also said he originally planned to deliver a sermon titled “Happy Birthday, America” for the Fourth of July service. But instead of upbeat patriotic music, Sunday's program was changed to add hymns reflecting a time of mourning.
The killings alarmed many residents, who canceled Independence Day holiday plans. Some talked of arming themselves.
“The irony is that the freedoms we have, we're locked behind closed doors with firearms,” Thomas said. “We should be celebrating freedom, but we find ourselves very much restrained by fear.”
Blanton, the sheriff, has said the five victims were shot but hasn't said how the shootings are linked.
The shootings occurred within about 10 miles of each other in Cherokee County, which has 54,000 residents and is set amid peach orchards and farms some 50 miles southwest of Charlotte.
Jennings, now 37, attended Gardner-Webb University in 1990 and was a football standout. He's now coach at Ridge View High in Columbia.
He said he owes much of his success to Parker, who he says he always referred to as “his white mama.”
“It wasn't about football,” said Jennings, who is black. “I really needed someone to reach out to me.”
