Sketch released in Conover killings; neighbors mourn

Investigators Friday continued to search for the killer of four Laotian family members found dead in their home near Conover Thursday morning, but they had no solid leads.

The Catawba County Sheriff's Office released a composite sketch of the suspect based on witness descriptions of a man seen leaving the Millstone neighborhood off Houston Mill Road about the time of the killings.

Investigators are looking for an Asian or Hispanic man between 5 feet 4 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.

Authorities say Lisa Saephan and her three children – 20-year-old Melanie, 18-year-old Pauline and 3-year-old Cody – were stabbed or shot to death in their home early Thursday.

Recordings of an unidentified teen's panicked 911 calls were released Friday to The Associated Press. Screaming and sobbing, the girl reported that a friend had been yanked into her own home by a strange man who was stabbing and beating her.

The friend who called 911 told authorities she saw a man outside the house when she drove up around 7 to give Pauline a ride to school. When they returned to the house to investigate, they heard crying through the front door, the friend told the 911 dispatcher.

“And then when she knocked on the door the guy opened it and he started beating her up … he was stabbing her,” the girl, who fled, told the dispatcher through sobs.

The 911 call came in about 7:15 a.m., authorities said; deputies arrived at 7:33 a.m. and found the victims.

Brian Tzeo, Lisa Saephan's husband and the children's father, had left for work shortly before his family was killed.

“I can't stop thinking about them,” Tzeo told The Associated Press Friday night. “I've been holding and carrying around family pictures and crying. I don't know if I will ever get over this pain.”

Autopsies were conducted on the victims' bodies at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, but reports on the examinations hadn't been released, said sheriff's Maj. Coy Reid.

Since the killings, investigators have taken hundreds of phone tips and interviewed several “people of interest,” said Sheriff David Huffman, though none had resulted in anything solid. They also examined a pistol found in a yard a few blocks from the crime scene.

As authorities searched for the killer, relatives, friends and neighbors struggled with the violent deaths that shocked the quiet neighborhood.

At Bunker Hill High School, where Melanie graduated in 2007 and Pauline was a senior, students and staff wore purple, Pauline's favorite color, and more than 100 students had taken advantage of grief counseling offered by the school system.

Friends and teachers remembered the teenager as sweet-natured and hard working, a girl who loved children, longed to be a teacher and to live in California, which her family left for North Carolina about 10 years ago.

“She had friends everywhere,” said Mitchell Cha, president of Bunker Hill's International Club, of which Pauline was a member. “She was open to everybody.”

Kim Ford, an instructor at Catawba Valley Community College, said that Pauline's older sister Melanie was quiet, but a good, dependable student in the health care management courses she concentrated in.

Anyone with information on the suspect's whereabouts should dial 911 or call the Catawba County Sheriff's Office at 828-464-5241.