On November 10, 1970, 15-year-old white female Janice Faye Kirby was murdered in Sumter County, South Carolina. Her 17-year-old friend, Patricia Ann Alsbrook, was also killed. The perpetrator was Janice's uncle, Donald Henry “Pee Wee” Gaskins, a known serial killer. Gaskins claimed he was enraged by the girls' alleged drug use and attempted to sexually assault them before beating them to death.
He buried Patricia in a septic tank and transported Janice's body to Prospect, South Carolina, where he concealed it under pine straw before burying it near his childhood home.
Gaskins was arrested in November 1975 after his associate, Walter Neely, confessed to witnessing Gaskins commit multiple murders and led authorities to several burial sites. Gaskins was convicted of multiple murders and initially sentenced to death, but his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. In 1982, he murdered a fellow inmate, leading to a reinstatement of the death penalty. Gaskins was executed in the electric chair on September 6, 1991.
