STEPHEN STANKO: THE DEADLY WRITER

Article BY LORI BELL

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A seemingly of standing author goes on a 24 hour Killing Spree. Police launched a massive Manhunt only to find out the man they are looking for isn’t just a published writer, he was also a violent ex-con who already had taken a test run at murder.

In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on April 1st, 2005, forty-three-year-old Laura Ling was working her research librarian job at Socastee Library. Laura Ling was a divorced mother of three. Her two sons lived with their father, and her daughter, Christina, lived with her.

That afternoon Laura’s boyfriend Stephen, who had been living with her and Christina for the past four months, visited Laura at the library. He had just been fired from his job. He was let go because he was a sales person and he was not making the sales.

Stevens problems maintaining employment caused a lot of tension in the relationship. Laura realized that she could not support them all on her librarian salary. One of her friends also told her that Stephen had dead eyes, and that she should reassess her relationship with him.

In Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, on April 7th, 2005, Laura and Stephen got into a heated argument at home. She told him that she can’t do this anymore and that she needed to rectify the situation. The argument soon turned physical.

Somehow Stephen’s cigarette dislodged from his mouth and ended up stuck between his glasses and face, burning his cheek. He started punching Laura, then grabbed a necktie, threw her onto the bed, and bound her wrists behind her back.

At around 12:30 a.m., Christina Ling was sleeping in her bedroom, and her bedroom light was turned on. Stephen had a knife and she was terrified. While he was trying to tie her hands, she fled. She saw her mother bound and gagged on the bed, writhing and kicking against the headboard. Christina was then knocked unconscious.

Stephen ruthlessly beat Laura until Christina regained consciousness. He then turned his attention back to Christina. He literally straddled her, was holding a knife to her throat and he said, “ make a noise and you both die.” He forced himself upon her and raped her.

Stephen carried on strangling and beating her mother afterwards. He put a knee in her back, held her down and strangled Laura to death. He told the daughter, “ See what you did. I really loved her.” The nightmare wasn’t over for Christina.

He then took the knife and slit her throat twice. He checked the pulse on both victims, found no pulse and on either of them, then he nonchalantly took a shower. Laura’s demented boyfriend took his time searching the house for any money or credit cards.

He removed a gold bracelet from Laura’s wrist and then jumped in her Mustang and left the crime scene. Stephen’s first stop was Laura’s bank where he used her debit card at the ATM. The surveillance camera at the ATM picked him up emptying Laura’s account of $700.

Steven appeared calm and unhurried despite the brutality he had just inflicted. He had no idea that Christina was still alive. She’s able to get up immediately after he left the house, dial nine-one-one, and told the operator that she had been raped and that her mother had been killed.

The dispatcher stayed on the phone with Christina for 16 long minutes while EMS was in route. She described the killer to the police, who arrived while she was still on the phone with nine-one-one. Paramedics arrived and rushed Christina to the hospital where she received life-saving treatment.

The doctors had sewn up the injuries to her neck before they conducted an examination, and used rape kit to get DNA evidence.

In Conway, South Carolina, on April 8th, 2005, Stephen Stanko showed up at the house of his friend Henry Turner. Henry Lee Turner was a 74 year old grandfather and Air Force retiree, who attended one of Laura Ling’s classes for senior citizens at the local library, where he learned how to use computers and such.

Stanko was looking to line his pockets on the way out of town. He called Turner a half hour earlier and told him a bogus story to play on his emotions. He explained that his father had just died. Turner felt bad for him.

After they talked for awhile, Stanko borrowed Turner’s truck and went to pick up breakfast. Turner called his girlfriend, who he adored, and explained he was helping his friend with the loss of his father, and that he would see her later.

Stanko returned around 6:30 that morning carrying a bag of McDonald’s. After enjoying a delightful breakfast from McDonald’s, Turner went into the bathroom to shave. With Turner out of sight, Stanko rummaged through the house. He found what he was looking for, a gun.

He then grabbed a pillow off a bed to use as a makeshift silencer, and headed for the bathroom. He ended up shooting his friend, once in the back and once in the chest. With Henry Turner dead on the floor, Stanko searched the home for valuables.

He pocketed some cash and another gun, then took off in Turner’s truck. Clearly he was willing to hurt and destroy others, steal from anyone, and do whatever it took to make him happy. Stanko was completely unaware that police everywhere were already looking for him as part of a massive manhunt.

In Augusta, Georgia, on April 9th, 2005, Stanko was at Breinhart’s bar, a local oyster bar, rubbing elbows with golf fans and watching the Masters Tournament. He met a 30 year old woman named Dana Putnum. The two made immediate,lingering eye contact, and they ended up approaching one another.

Stanko told Putnum his name was Stephen Christopher. He told her he was a businessman in town temporarily, and was looking at getting a place in Augusta. They ended up drinking, dancing, and talking the night away.

Dana realized that Stanko was too drunk to drive and she offered him her sofa. He slept there but interestingly Dana locked her bedroom door. The next morning Stanko accompanied and her parents to church. Following the services, Stanko took Putnum out to a fancy restaurant and gave her a gold bracelet. The same gold bracelet he took from Laura Ling.

Dana was very giddy when she called her grandmother and explained she met this great guy, Stephen Christopher, and she really liked him, and thought there was a future between them.

On April 12th, 2005, Dana received a call from her mother that would turn her world upside down. Her mother said to look at page 5B in the newspaper. There was a picture of a man who killed two people and raped a young girl. Dana’s mother said,” I believe that’s your Stephen Christopher.”

Dana immediately drove to the local sheriff’s department and told them everything she knew about the new man in her life. The police were able to get a title three Authority, wiretap her phone, and within hours she received a call from her Stephen Christopher.

They were able to quickly triangulate on the location of the phone and realized it was at a local mall. Police responded to the mall and they saw Henry Turner’s stolen pickup truck parked in the parking lot of the mall.

Stanko was inside the food court eating lunch. Eventually he exited the mall. As he approached the stolen truck, he was immediately apprehended by federal and local authorities. They revealed his identity to be Stephen Stanko.

Police searched the truck and recovered a 357 magnum, bullets, and Turner’s checkbook. Ballistics test later confirmed that the magnum was the weapon used to murder Turner. Just four days into the manhunt, law enforcement finally got their guy.

Stanko was charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, and booked into a Georgia jail. Stanko was extradited back to South Carolina to face charges for the murders of Laura Ling and Henry Turner. When law enforcement ran Stanko’s name they discovered he had a criminal record including a conviction for the attempted murder of a former girlfriend.

Stanko had delusions of grandeur. He was an aggressive narcissist and psychopath. When he didn’t get what he wanted he turned violent. Law enforcement spent the next 16 months prepping for trial against the unemployed thirty-seven-year-old, who on the surface seemed like the last person to be facing murder charges.

Stanko was born on January 13th, 1968. He was born in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, because his father was an officer in the United States Navy and was stationed there. There were five children in the family, three boys and two girls.

Stephen and his older brother were kind of competing for their fathers admiration. Stanko excelled in high school, both athletically and academically. He was thought of as brilliant by his teachers and those around him. He looked like he would have had a very bright future.

When Steven was just 15, his older brother Billy, died in a mysterious house fire, which caused his father to disengage from the family. Stanko desperately seeked his dad’s attention and approval, but never received it. Stanko dreamt of joining the US Air Force Academy, and he really wanted to make his father proud.

He was devastated when he received a rejection letter from the academy. After being rejected by the Air Force, he just kind of wandered off into heavy crimes and had no real focus in his life. Digging deeper into Stanko’s background, it was clear to authorities that the Air Force reject was a compulsive liar with a history of preying upon vulnerable women.

In 1992, Stanko met a woman named Liz McClendon. This woman was a divorced mother with a young son. Initially she found him quite creepy, but he managed to charm her. They shared a love of music and started dating.

Stanko told Elizabeth that he attended art school and owned a mansion. The truth was that Stanko was flat broke. He had a tough time holding onto jobs. Even when he was unemployed he carried on this false aroma of a legitimate successful life.

He literally donned a suit and left the home for 10 hours every day as if he was going to work even if he was not. Stanko’s constant skimming did catch up to him. Liz confronted Stanko about jewelry that had disappeared, blank checks that had been stolen from her purse, and even a missing painting. Stanko snapped .

He attempted to strangle her. He eventually released the vice from her neck, leaving her gasping in horror. She called the police. The police arrived at the scene and Stanko managed to charm them into his version of events.

And so the police left, telling Liz to leave despite the fact that it was her house. The couple broke up, but that’s not the end of it. He moved down to Atlanta, Georgia, where he latched onto another single mother, but he continuously called Liz trying to reengage their relationship.

One day in September, 1995, Stanko showed up on Liz’s South Carolina doorstep. Liz eventually allowed Stanko back into her home. He ended up rekindling with Liz, and ended up getting a job at the car dealership where he was working in sales.

In mid February, 1996, Stanko was fired from the dealership. That same month authorities questioned him about a used car business he had been running on the side and alleged Grand Theft Auto.

Immediately Liz became suspicious of this situation, and she literally told him to sleep on the couch. He responded by hurling a box of tissues at Liz. She threw it back. He retaliated by slamming her to the floor. Liz dialed nine-one-one, but Stanko hung up the phone before the call could be completed. She tried again.

Enough of the call got through, that nine-one-one got her number, and then they returned the call to her. She answered the phone and said, “My boyfriend was just leaving, if he doesn’t leave, I’ll call nine-one-one again.” Then she went off to go take a nap in her room.

Liz tried to get some sleep, but she awoke to the smell of ammonia. The cloth was put over her mouth, and Stanko was in front of her saying, “We can’t have you calling the police now can we?” Eventually he moved the gag from her mouth.

Stanko tied her up and gagged her. He left her sitting on the toilet, bound and gagged. He took off in a stolen GMC Jimmy and drove about 200 miles into the Blue Ridge Mountains. He stopped in Greenville, South Carolina, and rented a motel room. From there he called Liz claiming that he spent the night soul-searching and was suicidal.

Police managed to trace the call to a Days Inn. Police warned the motel and arrested Stanko without incident. Stanko pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping and aggravated assault and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Stanko was also diagnosed with borderline narcissistic personality disorder. He served his time from 1996 to 2004 like a model prisoner. He meticulously kept notes on everything he was dealing with while in there. He literally hand wrote two thousand pages of a manuscript. He expected to create a book to have published.

Stanko’s book was released on April 30th, 2004. Less than three months later he was out on the streets. Nine months after that he murdered Laura Ling and almost killed her fifteen-year-old daughter.

In Georgetown County, South Carolina, on August 7th, 2006, he stood trial for the murder of Ling and the rape of Christina. The really key witness was Christina, who recounted in vivid detail, not only her own rape and attempted murder, but watching Stanko beat and strangled her mother to death.

The defense agreed that Stephen Stanko was legally insane. Stanko’s defense team said that he could not possibly be guilty of these crimes because of a severe brain disorder that he had. An expert doctor testified that Stanko was incapable of telling right from wrong due to damage to his frontal lobe.

The prosecution brought in their own medical experts who said Stanko’s brain was just fine. It was up to the jury to decide. On August 14th, 2006, after just two hours of deliberation, they convicted Stanko on all counts.

He was convicted in the murder of Laura Ling and he was convicted in the attempted murder of Christina Ling, the sexual assault of Christina, and the kidnapping of Christina, and Laura Ling. Four days later, the jury recommended the death penalty.

In Horry County, South Carolina, on November 13th, 2009, Stanko was back in court standing trial for the murder of Henry Lee Turner. Stanko’s ex-girlfriend, Liz McClendon, was also called to the stand to establish that he had the capacity to kill long before his 24 hour killing spree.

She gave her account of her relationship with Stanko and recalled to the court his attempt to kill her using ammonia and tying her up. Prosecutors had the gun used to kill Turner which Stanko had in his possession at the time of his arrest.

The state also had a material witness, Turner’s girlfriend Cecilia, who had been on the phone with Turner the day of the killing, and can place Stanko at the scene of the crime. On November 19, 2009, Stanko was found guilty of Henry Lee Turner’s murder. He made a plea for leniency during the penalty phase of the trial. He ultimately received a second death sentence .

This was a killing machine. This guy tortured and raped a 15-year-old girl, and beat and tortured her mother, whom he loved. This was clearly a guy who should rot in prison or be killed. Stephen Stanko remains on death row at Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville, South Carolina. No date has been set for his execution .