TELFAR COUNTY, GA – A magnet fisher in Georgia recently discovered pivotal pieces of evidence possibly connected to the 2015 murder case of an elderly couple who were reportedly entrapped in a Craigslist scam. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced the recovered items, which include a firearm, personal identification belonging to the victims, and a cell phone, this week.
According to the investigation, in January 2015, a Caucasian couple, Elrey and June Runion, aged 69 and 66, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. They were said to be traveling to McRae, Georgia, responding to a Craigslist advertisement about a 1966 Mustang Classic car. Their bodies were discovered four days later in the nearby lake along with their submerged SUV.
Authorities arrested Ronnie Adrian “Jay” Towns, the suspect whom the couple was last known to have communicated with prior to their disappearance. At the time, it was reported that Towns was not the owner of the Mustang car, as claimed in his online advertisement. He was charged with armed robbery and for the murder of the couple. Despite the charges, he pleaded not guilty.
District Attorney Tim Vaughn of the Oconee Judicial Circuit has expressed optimism about the new evidence, implying that it has strengthened the case against Towns. It is crucial to note that the initial legal proceedings were disrupted due to a mix-up in the grand jury selection and later by the COVID-19 pandemic, causing the trial to lag for nearly a decade.
Evidence was not only garnered from the magnet fishing effort, but also from a consequent search warrant executed at a nearby residence on Webb Cemetery Road. Towns is known to have lived there prior to his arrest. The newly unearthed articles are expected to undergo thorough scrutiny in a crime lab to further solidify the case.