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was pretty sure she remembered exactly what Stanko did and didn’t do to her, but oral and anal swabs were taken, nonetheless, in addition to the vaginal swabs.
    Penny closed her eyes and endured the procedure, hoping beyond hope that she was allowing the cop to gather DNA evidence that would put her attacker away.

    Georgetown County sheriff A. Lane Cribb had been in law enforcement since 1973, thirty-two years. He attended Horry-Georgetown Technical College, Limestone College, and the University of Alabama, where he received a bachelor’s degree in business administration. His first job as an officer of public safety was with the South Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control bureau.
    Cribb worked as a criminal investigator with the Florence County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) and then returned to Georgetown County in the same capacity. He was first elected Georgetown County sheriff in 1992, and had been reelected three times.
    He loved to learn more about being a cop, and had graduated from courses at the Carolina Command College, National Center for Rural Law Enforcement (NCRLE), and the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy.
    He was also a joiner of clubs and fraternal societies. He was an Elk and a Mason. Plus, he was a member of the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) and was a past president of the South Carolina Sheriffs’ Association (SCSA).
    Within minutes of Penny’s 911 call, an all-points bulletin (APB)was on the air, and Sheriff Cribb was heading a manhunt that would make newspaper headlines across the United States. Stanko was described in the police “be on the lookout” (BOLO) as six-foot-three and 192 pounds, with medium-length dark hair and glasses with silver aviator frames. He might be headed toward North Carolina, the bulletin stated. Sheriff Cribb secured a warrant for Stanko’s arrest, accusing him of murder, criminal sexual misconduct, and car theft.

CRIME SCENE
    From the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office (GCSO), the lieutenant in charge of criminal investigations, William Pierce, arrived at the Ling home. He worked in plainclothes, always a neatly tailored suit. With his burly physique, shaved head, and trimmed goatee, he had the aura of a stern, single-minded pursuer of justice.
    Pierce started with the sheriff’s office in August 1990 as a reserve deputy, and became a deputy sheriff assigned to the Uniform Patrol Division two years later. In 1997, he was assigned to the Criminal Investigation Division to cover Waccamaw Neck and Pawleys Island. In 2002, he went to school in Atlanta to become a polygraph operator. After an internship with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, (SLED), Pierce conducted lie detector examinations all across South Carolina.
    Since 2003, when he was promoted to lieutenant, he had investigated crimes in addition to his polygraph duties. But none of his experience could prepare him for the Ling murder scene. It was worse than anything he could have imagined. He knew immediately that they were after a monster. The carnage was something that a civilized human being would be incapable of doing.
    Not knowing for sure that the living witness would survive, Lieutenant Pierce examined the scene as if forensic evidence against the killer would be essential.
    The emergency people had somewhat contaminated the scene in their understandable urgency to treat the seriously wounded Penny, but other than that, the home was as the killer left it.
    Laura’s body was still on the floor between the bed and the wall, her hands were still bound together behind her back with a pair of silk neckties. Near the body was a small lamp, with a glass globe that had been broken during the violence. On the lamp shade were what appeared to be bloodstains. Pierce also found droplets of blood in the hallway, and in the bathroom.
    The entire lamp was bagged as evidence. Swabs were made of each discovered blood droplet. All of the evidence was sent to Senior Agent Bruce S. Gantt Jr., at the