Why is Greer, South Carolina so murdery?

Greer sits in northwestern South Carolina, straddling Greenville and Spartanburg counties: a railroad town from 1873 that grew into textiles and then, when cheap imported T-shirts arrived in the 1970s, was predicted to become a ghost town. It did not. It has 35,131 people and, for the show's purposes, eleven murders within twenty five miles, which puts it 96th overall and first in South Carolina.

The cases are spread from 1987 to 2021 and across four towns: one in Greer itself, then Traveler's Rest at twelve miles, Roebuck at sixteen and Easley at twenty one. Episode 671, running from 1987 to 1990, carries four victims; episode 580 carries two; episode 50 carries four in 2008; episode 618 carries one from 2021. No single episode carries the count. Four of them share it out.

This counts the show's cases, not crime statistics. The show chooses where to go, and it has chosen this corner of the state four times.