A 50-year-old South Carolina woman has been found shot dead outside a home Sunday evening, leaving a family shattered and a community in demand of answers.
Shortly after midnight, the Cherokee County Coroner’s Office responded to a call on Catawba Road in the town of Gaffney.
Upon arrival, investigators found Velvet Denise Foster with a gunshot wound to the head. She succumbed to her wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.
“You can tell that she comes from a beautiful family. All of them are a joy to be around, just to have to see their happiness be dimmed by such an awful thing, is just heartbreaking, honestly,” one of Foster’s family members, Andrew Lindsay, told WSPA.
“I’m pretty upset, I mean, it’s heartbreaking. She was a good lady, that’s my son’s grandmother,” said another loved one, Kristen McIntyre.
“Miss Velvet, she was a very special person, she took us in like family,” said Lindsay.
“She loves every single one of my kids, since they’ve been growing up, she’s been in their lives,” explained McIntyre.
They further added that she was a light in the lives of so many.
“She was a ball of energy; she was a hoot. Anytime church opened, she was in church, she was just a Christian lady. Just as good as they come,” they both said.
McIntyre said the victim was always there with family to help celebrate holidays, birthdays and all in between.
“She would stop by and see the kids. See her grandson often,” said McIntyre.
Lindsay further added that Foster was in the process of building a home and was excited to become his neighbor.
“To think that something like that could happen so close to your home, that’s a real eye-opener. But then, when you know the person, that makes it that much worse,” he said. “Especially, when they were the type of person Miss Velvet was.”
“Velvet was a sweet lady and I hope they get to the bottom of this,” said McIntyre.
At the time of this writing, police have not identified a suspect, but said that the shooting was not a random act of violence. A second person was also shot and is currently being treated at a local hospital.
