Sunday, July 3, 2011

Wagener, SC: Family of Wagener victim describes suspect as "control freak"

July 3, 2011

NORTH AUGUSTA, SC -- Words cannot express the hurt and pain of the Baldwin family. Belinda and Dinah can not believe their baby sister, 46-year-old Esther Baldwin was murdered by the same man she had once loved.

Investigators believe Baldwin was the fourth victim of Ken Myers in a shooting rampage that began Saturday afternoon.

"She always answers when we call," said Belinda Knoepfle. They called for deputies to check on their sister in Wagener Saturday night when they got word that there was a manhunt for Myers.

"We got concerned and we went to Wagener to her house," said Dinah Baldwin. She is Esther's sister-in-law. She said when they got to the house, SLED was already there and that is when they found out she was murdered.

The family said Esther was just one person on Myers' hit list. Investigators say Myers first killed his wife, her twin sister and their mother in their home on Daytona Road. He then traveled less than a mile to Esther's home on Big Branch Road and shot her in the neck. Myers once lived in that home with Esther.

"She dated Ken for about seven and a half years and he was a control freak," said Dinah Baldwin."He made her quit her job, she couldn't cut her hair, wear makeup or visit her family.

The family said Myers had a temper problem. One day he was normal and the next day he would threaten Esther's life. They said when the two broke up, Ester stayed in the home on Big Branch Road and started a new beginning for herself.

"She was happy and she got her job back," said Dinah Baldwin. "She came around the family more and had her daugther too."

Myers was chased by deputies when he left Esther's home. He eventually took his own life. The family says this is no kind of justice for taking the lives of innocent women.

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