1979, The Cold Case Murder of Regina Costellia

Years ago, if you drove out of town on South Market road, you would have crossed a steel framework bridge where Crab Orchard Creek crosses the road just on the south outskirts of town. Early on Sunday morning , June 3rd, 1979, two Chicago area fishermen were looking for a place to fish so they stopped to peruse the creek as a possible fishing hole.

The men discovered the body of 19 year old Regina (Oliver) Costellia of Herrin. Her belongings were found to have been dumped just north of the bridge and the body had attempted to be dumped in the creek but appeared to have gotten lodged in the steel framework of the bridge which left the body dangling by one arm. Continue reading

1960, The Cold Case Murder of Bunice Tyner

Bunice Tyner was a Marion businessman who owned a handful of taverns in Marion and the surrounding area from 1941 up to his murder in 1960. Tyner also owned Wimpey’s Café at 106 S. Court Street, but the business was actually operated by his wife, Louina. The amusements in local taverns in those days, popular since WWII, were pinball and jukebox machines. Also, slot machines, which were technically illegal, but often tolerated under the right conditions. Continue reading

1974, The Cold Case Murder of Dr. Donald Ripley

On December 4, 1974, Dr. Ripley’s chiropractic office at 1825 W. Main Street was full of patients awaiting treatment. At 9:30, an hour after the office should have opened, an unanswered telephone prompted one of the patients to answer it. Upon opening a hallway door he discovered the body of Dr. Donald Ripley. Ripley had been shot seven times with a .45 caliber hand gun. Most of the efforts to uncover his murderer centered around a mysterious, well-dressed black man, but his killer was never found and remains one of Marion’s cold cases to this day.  Continue reading