On December 22, 1999, 30-year-old florist Karen Moore Hayden was found dead in the back room of Greenville-Pelham Florist on Rutherford Road in Greenville, South Carolina. A customer had discovered the shop locked and dark with a closed sign; an employee who entered found Hayden on the floor with her throat slit.

Detectives noted striking similarities between Hayden’s killing and the June 26, 1999 death of 26-year-old Jonathan Lara, an employee at a RadioShack who had been restrained and fatally stabbed in the neck in the back room of his store. Those parallels suggested a possible connection while investigators searched for leads.

On December 23, 1999 a violent spree by 28-year-old Dallen Forrest Bounds left two people, Sandra Ott and Timothy Ott, dead in Easley; Bounds took hostages during a 12-hour manhunt and then died by suicide. An anonymous tip tied Bounds to the earlier murders of Hayden and Lara, and investigators subsequently linked him to all four killings. Authorities also arrested Cassandra Laster, a former roommate of Bounds, in connection with Jonathan Lara’s murder.

Did anyone who knew Karen or worked at the Greenville-Pelham Florist have memories or details to share that could add context to her case?