Published: Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009 / Updated: Saturday, Dec. 05, 2009 11:07 PM

Who will be a hero like the woman who helped catch Sharon bank robbers?

Heroes come in all kinds of packages. War heroes who get Bronze Stars. Sports heroes who get gold medals. Lady heroes who help catch bank robbers should get silver-laden thank-yous from every one of us who hopes our neighbors care about us.

The hero of Sharon is a woman with a camera and the courage of a lion. She helped catch a bank robber dubbed the “Motorcycle Bandit” and his accomplice. She did not say, “Not my problem.” She did not worry about herself before her neighbors at the bank, who had guns held to their heads. She snapped pictures and called the cops and the next thing that happened was the clang of prison bars.

The two criminals — who had the nerve to steal in a town of 466, where everybody knows everybody — can thank the woman who wants no publicity and has given no interviews for their paid vacation among murderers and dope dealers that will last 25 years.

“A hero,” is how Johnny Bob Barnette, a Sharon town councilman who has spent 44 years helping others on the Sharon volunteer fire department, described the woman who took the pictures that led to the capture of the men who held guns at the heads of bank tellers.

“A hero who likely saved people's lives by caring enough to take a picture of the U-Haul used for the getaway,” is how E.B. Springs, the prosecutor who put the two robbers away, described the woman. Springs is a former cop: He has been to banks that are robbed and seen the terror in the faces of clerks. He has been to the homes where the mother answers the door to hear the child is dead.

“More than a hero, a gem we all owe,” said Beverly Blair, mayor of Sharon. “We have already talked about doing something as a town to honor this woman. If people look out for each other, keep their eyes open and their ears open, if they worry about somebody else, then people who try to hurt others will be caught. It is that simple.”

Now, two bodies of women from Gaston County, N.C., have been found in the past three weeks about 15 miles north of Sharon, near the North Carolina state line. Police have said little about the crimes, or whether the cases might be connected.

But what matters in western York County, where real people live, is that in three weeks, two women ended up dead and left in the dirt. One was found north of Clover. The second in Kings Mountain State Park.

Both places are remote, but close to Gastonia, where each woman lived.

Neither Tom Smith, who represents the area on York County Council, nor state Rep. Herb Kirsh, who represents the area in the S.C. Legislature, had heard from constituents about the crimes.

But that doesn't mean people are not anxious. McGill's Store, at S.C. 161 and S.C. 55, between Clover and where the second body was found in the state park, is the crossroads for much information in western York County outside the towns.

Many people came in the store over the past days, talking about the found bodies, worrying about safety, being concerned, said Larry Wilmot, who works at the store.

“People seem to be nervous. One lady heard about the second body and just stopped and called home to make sure her own daughter was all right,” said Wilmot. “People come in, they keep asking what is new.”

The only thing new Wednesday was that the cops learned the name of the woman whose body was found in Kings Mountain State Park on Sunday. Her name is Randi Dean Saldana. She was 30. The woman found on Oct. 29 was Heather Marie Catterton. She was 17.

Daughters of somebody. Dead. And found in western York County.

“You would think that somebody who knows something would come forward and say something,” said Blair, the Sharon mayor, whose little town stayed safe because somebody did come forward. “These two women dead, this is close to home for all of us out here in western York County where we are supposed to look out for each other.”

Looking out for others happens in small towns and rural places. In the town of Great Falls in southern Chester County a few weeks ago, a tipster told police of a possible impending arson at an abandoned mill. Cops charged people before a fire was set. Property, maybe lives, saved by someone who cared. A nameless hero just like the woman in Sharon.

Johnny Bob Barnette, the volunteer fireman who has spent his adult life running into burning buildings, is excited for his town to honor that woman who caught the bank robbers. He read about both bodies being found, too. That is all people are talking about in western York County, where people look out for each other.

Yet, Barnette asked a question we all must ask. “The lady who took the pictures at the bank did a great thing. A heroic thing. I wonder who will step up and be a hero for those two girls?”