GASTONIA, N.C. -- "I do miss her and I hope they find who done this to her," said Tim Gause, talking about the woman he says he loved, 30-year-old Randi Saldana.
Police say Saldana was the second woman to be murdered from Gastonia and dumped in remote parts of York County in less than a month.
The first victim, 17-year-old Heather Catterton, was found dead in a field near Clover on Oct. 29. Police have yet to say how either of the victims were killed.
Gause says Saldana knew Catterton but did not have much in common with her because of the difference in their ages.
Gause and Saldana lived together in a house on Shannon Bradley Road in Gastonia that had been foreclosed on. The house appears empty and Gause said the couple had to sell much of what they had and were just getting by.
Saldana left last Thursday to go see a friend and Gause says that was the last time he saw her. He said he has been questioned by police, who still have not ruled him out as a suspect.
"I would not hurt her for nothing in the world," said Gause. "I never put my hands on her at all."
Saldana's body was found Sunday, badly burned in a wooded area of Kings Mountain State Park. It is just a bit more than five miles away from where Catterton's body was found.
Saldana was identified by fingerprints. She has a lengthy criminal history, including more than 35 arrests in North Carolina.
Few people along the road where she lived knew much about Saldana.
At a corner gas station close by the house, a clerk, who did not want to be identified, said police wanted to see pictures from a surveillance camera that points toward the house. The clerk said trees blocked the camera view.
Because the bodies were found in York County, the York County Sheriff's Office is handling the investigation. Other than releasing Saldana's name and age, a spokesperson said there would be no other comment on the murders.
