July 3, 2009

GAFFNEY, S.C. (AP) -- A sheriff says the shooting deaths of a peach farmer and two women in a rural South Carolina county the past week have been linked to the same killer.

Cherokee County Sheriff Bill Blanton says investigators made the link after finding an 83-year-old woman and her 50-year-old daughter bound and shot to death Thursday in their home near Gaffney, about 50 miles south of Charlotte, N.C.

The home isn't far from a house where peach farmer 63-year-old Kline Cash was shot to death Monday.

The sheriff says evidence makes it obvious that the killings are linked, but refused to give details.

Blanton didn't return several messages left for him or his deputies about a fourth killing reported in his county later Thursday.

He said earlier that "we are dealing with a dangerous person."

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)