A former forensic photographer and author of Murder in the Midlands chronicles horrific killings that struck at the heart of the Palmetto State. Ax assault, kidnapping, brutal murder: how could these things happen in a small town? Although regional crimes hardly ever make it to the national circuit, they will always remain with the families and communities of the victims and a part of the area’s history. After working with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division as special agent/forensic photographer for twenty-four years, Rita Shuler has a passion for remembering the victims. In Small-town Slayings, Shuler takes us back in time, showing differences and similarities of crime solving in the past and present and some surprising twists of court proceedings, verdicts, and sentences. From an unsolved case that has haunted her for thirty years to a cold case that was solved after fifteen years by advanced DNA technology, Shuler blends her own memories with extensive research, resulting in a fast-paced, factual, and fascinating look at crime in South Carolina. Includes photos!

After 17-year-old Crystal Todd was found brutally murdered in her South Carolina hometown in 1991, her best friend, Ken Register, was the last person anyone would suspect. But when DNA tests confirmed he raped and stabbed Crystal, their small town was stunned. photos. Martin's Press.

The full story of the infamous double murder featured on Discovery’s FBI Files—includes photos. In this book, former South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) forensic photographer Lt. Rita Y. Shuler recounts twenty-eight days of terror and shocking developments in one of the most notorious double murders and manhunts in South Carolina history. Shuler shares her own personal interactions with some of the key players in this famous manhunt and investigation. Also included are Bell’s chilling calls from area phone booths to the Smith family, along with his disconcerting interviews and bizarre actions in the courtroom, which show the dark, evil, and criminal mind of this horrific killer. This is a comprehensive account of the case that has been featured on the Discovery Channel’s FBI Files, in the CBS movie Nightmare in Columbia County, and on Court TV’s Forensic Files.

From Pulitzer Prize winner Raymond Bonner, the gripping story of a grievously mishandled murder case that put a twenty-three-year-old man on death row. In January 1982, an elderly white widow was found brutally murdered in the small town of Greenwood, South Carolina. Police immediately arrested Edward Lee Elmore, a semiliterate, mentally retarded black man with no previous felony record. His only connection to the victim was having cleaned her gutters and windows, but barely ninety days after the victim's body was found, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Elmore had been on death row for eleven years when a young attorney named Diana Holt first learned of his case. With the exemplary moral commitment and tenacious investigation that have distinguished his reporting career, Bonner follows Holt's battle to save Elmore's life and shows us how his case is a textbook example of what can go wrong in the American justice system. Moving, enraging, suspenseful, and enlightening, Anatomy of Injustice is a vital contribution to our nation's ongoing, increasingly important debate about inequality and the death penalty.

A former forensic photographer leads readers through the twists and turns of twelve homicide cases that gripped South Carolina during her career. Rita Y. Shuler’s fascination with the criminal mind began with her exposure as a young girl to a 1953 double-homicide that shocked South Carolina. When she came face to face with the original case records twenty-four years later on her first day of work as a forensic photographer with South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), she was immediately hooked on a profession that took her deep into the investigation of hundreds of cases. Shuler’s firsthand experience with forensic evidence of crime scenes and the court system gives her a unique perspective on murder and its horrifying effects on public and private lives. By combining analysis of court transcripts and official statements and confessions from murderers with her own personal interactions with the key players in some of these tragic dramas, Shuler allows the reader to see into the criminal minds of notorious killers like Pee Wee Gaskins, Rudolph Tyner, Ronald “Rusty” Woomer, and Larry Gene Bell. Shuler’s study is a must for everyone fascinated by the criminal mind and by the most famous murder cases in South Carolina’s recent past. Includes photos

For decades, evidence of the 1978 murder of Gwendolyn Elaine Fogle lay in the evidence room at the Walterboro Police Department. Investigators periodically revisited the case over the years, but it remained the department's top cold case for thirty-seven years. Special Agent Lieutenant Rita Shuler worked on the case shortly after she joined the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), and she couldn't let it go, not even after her retirement in 2001. In May 2015, Lieutenant Shuler teamed up with new investigator Corporal Gean Johnson, and together they uncovered key evidence that had been overlooked. With new advancements in DNA and fingerprint technology, they brought the case to its end in just four months. Join Shuler as she details the gruesome history of this finally solved case.

Radiant in her white satin wedding gown, Patricia Blakley was living a dream come true. At last, she was marrying the man she loved, Ted Kimble—a fellow Christian and son of a local preacher. But little did she realize her new husband had a dark side. Shock waves rocked the small, North Carolina town of Pleasant Garden when Patricia's charred body was discovered inside the Kimble's burned-out home. Soon family and friends learned an even worse truth—Patricia had died from a bullet wound to the head. Now, in Unholy Covenant, North Carolina journalist Lynn Chandler-Willis uncovers the story behind the crime. Taking readers from the crime scene to the courtroom, she delivers a passionate account of a crime that forever changed the lives of many in the small North Carolina community.