Share
Despite an order to keep Patrick Burris in jail, a communications breakdown allowed him to go free two weeks before police say he killed five people in South Carolina.
On June 12, Burris was arrested and jailed in Lincoln County for driving while his license was revoked.
For weeks, the career criminal fresh out of prison had been violating the terms of his release by missing curfew and driving while his license was revoked, authorities said. So the N.C. Parole Commission had issued an order that Burris be arrested and kept in jail without bond until it could review Burris' behavior.
Burris' probation officer, Angela Merrill, tried to keep him in jail June 12, according to the N.C. Department of Correction. She phoned the jail around 9:40 p.m. and was told Burris had already been released, correction officials say.
But Lincoln County jailers say Merrill never called. They never knew Burris was supposed to be detained indefinitely.
They released Burris on the traffic charge around 10:30 p.m. on June 12, records show, on a bond of $2,000.
Burris went on to binge on drugs and terrorize the small S.C. town of Gaffney, police and acquaintances say, committing a spree of apparently random killings in the heart of Cherokee County. A peach farmer. A teacher and retired teacher. A store owner and his 15-year-old daughter. All were shot to death over the course of a week.
Burris' probation officer and Lincoln County jailers acted appropriately, their bosses say. But had the Parole Commission's warrant been executed, Burris would have remained in jail and possibly sent back to prison for nine months.
Officer was ‘on top of' him
North Carolina's probation department, which also supervises felons recently released from prison, has struggled to keep up with huge caseloads and has been the target of reforms by Gov. Bev Perdue.
But probation officer Merrill was all over Burris, officials say.
“She was on top of this guy,” says correction department spokesman Keith Acree. “This was a very well-supervised case.”
Burris, who was born in Maryland, had been arrested more than 30 times in North Carolina and spent time in prisons in several states.
He was released from the Lincoln Correctional Center April 29, after serving more than seven years in prison for a series of break-ins and being a habitual felon.
He checked into a Days Inn motel in Lincolnton with a woman, Martha Ugalde, he met two years earlier while he was in a work-release program. He seemed “very friendly,” the motel manager said.
Burris, 41, and his woman friend planned to marry, her son Jimmy Vargas says. The couple moved to a mobile home park in Vale, northwest of Lincolnton. He wanted to turn his life around, Vargas says.
Burris, who was nicknamed “Country,” got a job trimming trees and worked in the Denver area, near Lake Norman. A friend helped him buy a 1998 champagne-colored Ford Explorer – although he didn't have a valid driver's license.
But almost immediately, Burris began missing his 8 p.m. curfew. In the weeks after his release, his probation officer went to his home 10 times and found he had violated curfew five times.
On May 27, Burris was cited in Gaston County with speeding and driving while his license was revoked.
Four days later, he was cited in Lincoln County for driving while his license was revoked.
On June 4, Merrill submitted a report to the N.C. Parole Commission, accusing Burris of violating the terms of his release and citing his curfew and driving violations. The commission oversees parolees as well as offenders such as Burris, who are released from prison subject to supervision and various behavioral requirements.
A day after filing her report, Merrill spotted Burris driving near Maiden, officials say. So she swore out a warrant for his arrest.
On June 8, after reviewing Merrill's violation report, the Parole Commission issued its own warrant for Burris' arrest. It instructed law enforcement officers to hold Burris until it could review his behavior.
But Merrill didn't receive it for several days – as the order was drafted and processed in Raleigh – nor would law enforcement officers who might be checking the statewide database for outstanding warrants.
In the early hours of June 9, in Mooresville, less than an hour's drive from where Burris lived and worked, 31-year-old Matthew Ryan Stewart was shot and killed during a home invasion. His wife was shot in the arm and survived but couldn't get a description of the attacker in the dark. She only reported that the attacker was tall. Police would soon be looking for links to Burris, who stood about 6 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 280 pounds.
Conflicting accounts
On Friday, June 12, Burris arrived at the probation office in Lincolnton for an 11 a.m. meeting with Merrill. When she realized Burris had driven himself to the meeting, she swore out another warrant – and he was arrested and put in jail.
Merrill didn't receive the commission's order that Burris be held until 4 p.m. that day, when a co-worker handed her the warrant.
Burris was in jail, but Merrill was busy meeting with other offenders she supervised and the order didn't appear to be an emergency. So she didn't immediately take steps to ensure he was held, officials say.
What happened next is in dispute.
Correction officials give this account: Merrill sought to keep Burris locked up when she called the jail from home around 9:40 p.m. to see if he was still there. Somebody at the jail told her Burris had already been released. But court records show he wasn't released until about 10:30 p.m.
The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office confirms that release time, but spokesman Jon Mayhew says Merrill didn't call the jail or attempt to stop his release.
“There was never any phone call made to us from his probation officer,” Mayhew said. “We weren't notified to place a hold on Patrick Burris.”
Phone records were not immediately available last week.
Merrill could not be reached for comment, and questions about the case were referred to the correction department.
Correction officials point out that Burris was not considered a danger and defended the probation department's performance.
“This was not an emergency situation at the time, based on all the information we had,” said George Dudley, a spokesman for the correction department, which supervises probation officers. “We had no indication he was a physical threat to anybody. He had not shown that he was assaultive or violent.”
Calm, and then killings began
Soon after Lincoln County released Burris, he went to a birthday party for one of Jimmy Vargas' children. He seemed happy, even tried to speak a little Spanish, Vargas' wife, Silvia, recalls.
“He was still talking about plans for the wedding,” says Silvia Vargas. “He was laughing and playing with the children. And he was so excited about trying to find a new job.”
But Burris was worried he might be sent back to prison, Jimmy Vargas says.
Shortly after the birthday party, Burris and his fiancée left Vale. She moved in with relatives in Denver, and he began looking for another job, mentioning that he was considering South Carolina.
Ugalde and Burris stayed in touch, but she didn't see him again, Silvia Vargas says.
In mid-June, Burris met Mark and Sharon Stamey, siblings from Gastonia who struck up a friendship with him. The trio hung out together “partying” over the next two weeks. Burris would leave when the drugs ran out, the Stameys told Observer news partner WCNC-TV.
On June 27, police say Burris shot and killed peach farmer Kline Cash, 63, in his home northwest of Gaffney.
Four days later, Burris bound and shot Hazel Linder, 83, and her daughter Gena Linder Parker, 50, in their home, also northwest of Gaffney. Their bodies were discovered around 3:40 p.m.
That same afternoon, Burris may have been spotted back in North Carolina, buying transmission fluid. Employees at Upper Cleveland Auto Parts in Fallston later told their boss, Charles Wright, they remember Burris.
On July 2, despite a massive influx of law enforcement officers and news of a serial killer broadcast nationally, Burris returned to Cherokee County.
Police say Burris shot and killed Stephen Tyler, 48, and wounded his daughter Abby, 15, in the family's furniture and appliance store in downtown Gaffney.
That night, Burris reconnected with the Stameys, and they spent the next three days constantly together “partying,” the Stameys told WCNC. Despite widespread media coverage, it never dawned on the Stameys – who haven't been charged in the case – that the SUV they rode around in resembled the one police were looking for. They never dreamed their new friend might be a serial killer.
On the Fourth of July, Gaffney got word that young Abby Tyler had died from her injuries.
Dog alerts couple to danger
On July 6, around 2:30 a.m. on a Monday, Burris and the Stameys drove to an abandoned house that had been the Stameys' childhood home near Dallas, N.C. The trio planned to sleep there.
Across the street, Michael and Terry Valentine were awakened by their 11/2 pound Chihuahua, Delilah, who was in bed with them. Headlights splashed into their bedroom as the Explorer backed into the Stameys' driveway.
Fearing a burglary, Michael Valentine called police.
When officers arrived, Burris got out of the Explorer, staggering. Police asked to see his identification and soon discovered a warrant for his arrest.
As officers tried to arrest him, Burris shot a Gaston County police officer in the leg, authorities say. The officers then fired multiple times, according to witnesses, killing the man they say brought so much pain to Gaffney.
Gaston police won't say whether they suspected they were facing the serial killer when they confronted Burris.
Cherokee County authorities won't detail what steps they took during the killing spree.
Ballistics tests of Burris' gun showed it matched the one used in the Cherokee killings.
Authorities aren't sure why Burris killed people. They have speculated he wanted money to buy drugs but are confused about why he left cash and other valuables at all of the crime scenes.
Gaffney Police Chief Richard Turner wonders if Burris just did it for the thrill.
Cherokee County has questions, too, as residents of this mostly rural area of peach farms and small towns tries to recover.
“It's just so sad,” says Kathy Baker, who works at a Gaffney thrift store and lives near the home where the Linders were killed.
“He was right in my neighborhood. He was at my doorstep. He could have come down our road. You just never know. I guess you don't ever know what's in somebody else's mind.”
Staff writer Christopher Kirkpatrick, researchers Marion Paynter and Maria David, and WCNC contributed.
