Police responded in force to Dallas-Spencer Mountain Road where Patrick Tracy Burris fired at officers responding to a call regarding a possible burglary. Police returned fire, killing Burris. (Ledger photo / JOE L. HUGHES Nine days of fear in Cherokee County technically ended at about 3 a.m. Monday with a hail of gunfire in a small home on Dallas-Spencer Mountain Road in Gaston County, N.C., even though the realization wouldn't set in until hours later.

A man who provided false identification to Gaston County police officers investigating a reported break-in pulled a gun and fired a shot, striking a police officer in the leg, when they attempted to take him into custody. The officers returned fire, killing 41-year-old Patrick Tracy Burris.

Almost immediately, suspicions arose and local investigators immediately traveled to North Carolina.

On Monday night, Cherokee County Sheriff Bill Blanton, Gaffney Police Chief Rick Turner and South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Director Reggie Lloyd were able to step up to a podium in front of the Cherokee County Law Enforcement Center and announce to the world that the man responsible for five murders in Cherokee County was dead.

Cherokee County Sheriff Bill Blanton (left) flips through the extensive "rap sheet" of Patrick Tracy Burris, who was shot dead by police officers in North Carolina on Monday morning. Authorities said Burris was the man responsible for five murders in Cherokee County. (Ledger photo / TIM GULLA) Burris possessed the gun that was a ballistic match to all five killings.

Burris drove a sport utility vehicle with a unique characteristic known only to police and a witness.

Burris possessed items linked to the June 27 killing of local peach farmer Kline Cash.

And unnamed evidence showed Burris was in the area at the time of each killing.

The proof only continued to mount on Tuesday, Blanton confirmed yesterday, as additional evidence and tests placed Burris at a crime scene, though he could not yet divulge what tests and evidence had come back.

While a great weight has in some ways been lifted off the shoulders of the task force that was trying to hunt down a serial killer while making sure he could not strike again, more questions than answers remained on Tuesday and the job of police investigators is far from over.

"There is a sense of relief," Chief Turner said. "But we're just now getting into the heart of the investigation. We want many more questions answered."

Among those questions: "Why? Why here? Why were those particular families targeted?"

Police also want to know where Burris spent his time, who he spent his time with, and whether he could be linked to any other crimes.

Investigators in other jurisdictions already are looking at cold case files and unsolved cases that might have any similarities, police confirmed, though no apparent connections have been found yet.

And even though Burris is dead and police believe there's more than enough evidence linking him to the Cherokee County killings, the evidence and crime scenes are still being processed.

The SLED laboratory has been working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, since police learned they had a serial killer in their midst and it was the SLED lab that was able to link the gun used in the North Carolina shootout in Gaston County with the Cherokee County murders in a matter of hours.

Any motive remains a mystery.

"We're still trying to piece that together," Lloyd said Tuesday. "Obviously we can't talk to him (Burris)."

But Lloyd said investigators will be talking to any individual who had contact with Burris and they hoped to get answers both for the victims' families and the Cherokee County community.

He and all of the law enforcement officials interviewed all cautioned, however, that some answers might never be known.

"We recognize that we may never know," Lloyd conceded.

Despite Burris' death, police still aren't releasing many details of the killings or the crime scenes. Turner said the details aren't being released at this point to preserve the integrity of the investigation.

When investigators learned Burris' identity, they soon learned he had a rap sheet 25 pages long. While there was nothing in his record as horrific as what happened in Cherokee County, Lloyd said the record still showed Burris was a violent person.

"A burglary in our state is a violent crime," he told one reporter during a Tuesday press conference. "He has a couple of armed robbery charges I'm aware of. He's got weapons charges coming out of his ear. I consider that violent."

Lloyd said little was known about Burris' family history. However, he said the first priority for investigators was to complete evidence collection at the North Carolina scene where Burris was found and inside the Ford Explorer that Burris drove.

His family history will come later, Lloyd indicated.

Chief Turner said he saw a smile appear on the faces of investigators on Monday as each piece of the puzzle began to complete a picture of Burris as the man they were after. "You could see a sense of relief upon that information," he said. "But then they backed up to look at all of the other evidence."

At some point Monday, the investigators all reached the same conclusion they had the right man, that "this was him (the serial killer)."

Turner added, "We had no doubt."

Then it became time for Blanton and Turner to tell the people they said deserved to be told first.

Blanton talked to the families of Kline Cash, who was killed June 27 inside his Battleground Road home, and of Hazel Linder and Gena Linder Parker, the mother and daughter killed July 1 inside Linder's home on Buck Shoals Road.

Turner went to the family of Stephen and Abby Tyler, the father and daughter shot July 2 inside Mr. Tyler's business on East Frederick Street.

Blanton said the families he informed reacted as anyone would. "They've been on an emotional roller coaster," he said. "It's up and down and down and up."

Both Blanton and Turner said the families were relieved in one respect, but continued to ask the most basic question of why this happened.

"Of course the questions are still in their minds," Turner said, "and I wasn't able to answer the questions we don't have answers to."

Seventh Circuit Solicitor Trey Gowdy said he had no doubt Burris was the man they were after and he had no doubt Burris received the same fate he would have received at a jury trial — a death sentence.

"Every time you think there are no depths to which humankind can sink, there's another depth," he said of the Cherokee County killings.

Gowdy, who recently announced his intent to run for another office, said he would have tried the case personally if Burris had been taken alive. "I would have seen this case through to the end, regardless of what happens in the future, even if it meant changing my career plans," he said. "The beauty of what happened (to Burris on Monday morning), there are no appeals."

The task force assembled to hunt down the killer was massive, involving local, state and federal agencies, from the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, SLED and the Gaffney Police Department to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, law enforcement agencies from every surrounding county and assistance from across the state and even nationally.

At any given time, there were as many as 100 investigators and up to 300 police officers in Cherokee County during the ordeal.

The list of assisting offices and agencies was so long that Blanton feared leaving someone out in expressing his thanks, and both he and Turner said they would be setting down in upcoming days to personally thank each and every one of them.

The massive police presence in Cherokee County will continue for at least a few more days.

Blanton and Turner both said they plan to talk personally with the Gaston County officers who confronted Burris and brought the ordeal to an end.

"I'm going to shake their hands," Blanton said. "I'm going to tell them I'm glad it worked out the way it did and the people from our community want to thank them."

Blanton added that everyone involved was praying for the fast recovery of the officer who was shot by Burris.

Turner said the community response to the police efforts was heartening beyond words.

"We cannot say enough about the generosity," he said. "We never called upon the community to feed us, to bring us drinks, to bring us snacks, and they responded overwhelmingly."

The press conference was attended by at least three dozen news outlets and at least 100 onlookers who came to hear the announcement..

"I'm just glad (about the news)," remarked Gaffney resident Tiffany Tuft, who lives just a few blocks from the Tyler Home Center on East Frederick Street, where Stephen and Abby Tyler were gunned down last Thursday. "I haven't been able to sleep at night," Tuft said. "He (the killer) had no remorse," added Tuft, who has two children of her own.