By LJ Staff

Augusta, GA, police on April 12 apprehended Stephen Stanko after a nationwide hunt for the career criminal, who is suspected of killing reference librarian Laura Ling in Myrtle Beach, SC, on April 8. Stanko, 37, also is the prime suspect in the related murder of Henry Lee Turner and the rape of a 15 year-old girl, according to several local news accounts. Police believe that Stanko strangled Ling, with whom he shared a house, then drove to Turner's home, shot him, and fled in Turner's vehicle. After receiving a call from a girl who claimed Stanko kidnapped and sexually assaulted her, police sought the suspect at his home address, there discovering the corpse of Ling, a 43-year-old mother of three.

Ling's coworkers at Socastee Library, Horry County Library System, received counseling. Police also protected employees during operating hours prior to Stanko's arrest. Coworkers said that Ling met Stanko in her book discussion group and described him as intelligent and well spoken; she also helped him research a book he aimed to write about prison. While incarcerated he also wrote and published Living in Prison: A History of the Correctional System (Greenwood, 2004), which police removed from the library as evidence. Police say Turner knew both Ling and Stanko through his frequent visits to the library. In 2004, Stanko was released from prison after serving approximately eight years of a ten-year kidnapping sentence; he previously had served time for stealing cars.