WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | Detectives investigating possible link in York Co. murders

Detectives investigating possible link in York Co. murders

YORK COUNTY, SC (WBTV) – York County authorities are investigating a possible link between the murders of two Gastonia women who were found dead just a few miles apart in York County.

Heather Catterton, a 17-year-old high school dropout, was found partially clothed in a rural field late last month.  The badly burned remains of 30-year-old Randi Saldana, a mother of three, were found by a passerby in Kings Mountain State Park Sunday afternoon.

The York County Sheriff's Office is calling the murder of these women "a mess" and they wonder if someone was out to get them both. So far, the sheriff's office has given few details as to how the two girls died.

The last time Tim Gause saw his girlfriend Randi Saldana alive was on Wednesday, Nov. 11.

"I had to go to the hospital and she went with a friend of hers," Gause said.  "I can’t say no names because of the investigation, but he was the last one to see her alive."

Gause said he and Saldana had been dating for six months.  He says he never met Heather Catterton, but he knew Saldana and Catterton were acquaintances through other friends. Gause said Saldana was visibly upset when she learned about Catterton's murder.

"She watched it on the news and on the Internet about what had happened and she got real worried," Gause said.

Catterton’s father, Nicholas Catterton, thinks Saldana knew something about his daughter's death.

"She must have been around somewhere between my daughter missing and she knows something 'cause otherwise, she wouldn't have just turned up--them girls just don't turn up like that,” said Catterton.

Catterton and Saldana lived about 10 minutes from each other in Gastonia.  Both were found about 20 minutes away in South Carolina and both had prior run-ins with the law on drug charges.  These similarities has Gause asking questions.

"I wonder if the same person did this," Gause said. "I mean, I don’t know if they did, but they didn’t have to do her like they done her. They didn’t have to burn her and all that."

Gause said he and Saldana lived in his home on Shannon Bradley Road in Gastonia.

"[It] could be the same person that knew Heather knew Randi that killed both of them,” said Gause. “It could be somebody that they trusted, somebody that they didn't think anyone would do anything like that."

Gause told us he will miss Saldana's feisty personality.  With her three children now left without a mother, Gause said he just wants answers.

"They're gonna find who did it," he said. "I got confidence in God and the police and them finding who did this because they need to be--they need to be dealt with."

Meanwhile, Nicholas Catterton worries as long as the killer is still out there, other young women could be in danger.

“I hope that they catch this person, undoubtedly, he's going to keep doing it again,” he said. “He has done it twice." 

If you know anything about either of these cases, call the York County Sheriff's Office at 803-628-3059 or Crimestoppers at 877-409-4321. 

©2009 WBTV. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.