Georgia
Someone fishing with a magnet dredged up new evidence in couple’s killing, officials say
McRAE-HELENA, Ga. (AP) — Someone using a magnet to fish for metal objects in a Georgia creek pulled up a rifle as well as some lost belongings of a couple found slain in the same area more than nine years ago.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says driver’s licenses, credit cards and other items dragged from Horse Creek in rural Telfair County are “new evidence” in a murder case that’s still awaiting trial.
A citizen who was magnet fishing in the creek on April 14 discovered a .22-caliber rifle, the GBI said in a news release Monday. The unnamed person returned to the same spot two days later and made another find: A bag containing a cellphone, a pair of driver’s licenses and credit cards.
The agency says the licenses and credit cards belonged to Bud and June Runion. The couple was robbed and fatally shot before their bodies were discovered off a county road in January 2015.
Authorities say the couple, from Marietta north of Atlanta, made the three-hour drive to Telfair County to meet someone offering to sell Bud Runion a 1966 Mustang.
A few days later, investigators arrested Ronnie Adrian “Jay” Towns on charges of armed robbery and murder. They said Towns lured the couple to Telfair County by replying to an online ad that the 69-year-old Bud Runion had posted seeking a classic car, though Towns didn’t own such a vehicle.
Georgia courts threw out Towns’ first indictment over problems with how the grand jury was selected — a prolonged legal battle that concluded in 2019. Towns was indicted for a second time in the killings in 2020, and the case was delayed again by the COVID-19 pandemic. He has pleaded not guilty.
Court proceedings have also likely been slowed by prosecutors’ decision to seek the death penalty, which requires extra pretrial legal steps.
Towns’ defense attorney, Franklin Hogue, did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment Tuesday.
Prosecutors are preparing for Towns’ trial to start as soon as August, though no date has been set, said District Attorney Tim Vaughn of the Oconee Judicial Circuit, which includes Telfair County. He said the newly discovered evidence should prove useful.
“It was a good case already,” Vaughn said Tuesday, “but this makes it an even better case.”
He said the rifle from the creek is the same caliber as the gun that killed the Runions, though investigators are still trying to determine whether it’s the weapon used in the crime.
The items found in the creek also led investigators to obtain warrants to search a Telfair County home where they recovered additional evidence. The GBI’s statement gave no further details and Vaughn declined to comment on what was found.
West Virginia
Dying suspect’s confession leads to remains that may be that of long-missing woman, daughter
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A confession by a suspect in failing health led authorities to what they believe are the remains of a long-missing woman and her daughter who were buried in the backyard of a southern West Virginia home.
Susan Carter and her daughter, Natasha “Alex” Carter, have not been seen since Aug. 8, 2000. Authorities announced that they found what were believed to be the pair’s remains Monday at the home of suspect Larry Webb, hours after the man’s death.
“It’s kind of a sad day, but also a happy day because I can bring my baby home,” Alex Carter’s father, Rick Lafferty, said at a news conference Tuesday at state police headquarters in South Charleston.
Webb, who was in his 80s, suffered a medical episode on Monday at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex, where he was being held without bond after having been arrested earlier this month in connection with the girl’s death. Webb was pronounced dead at a hospital six hours before the remains were discovered.
“A bit of a poetic ending that not even I can write,” Raleigh County Prosecutor Ben Hatfield said at the news conference.
Webb’s confession earlier this month led authorities to find the bodies, which have been sent to the state medical examiner’s office for autopsies. That confession came after Webb was confronted with mounting evidence. FBI Supervisory Special Agent Tony Rausa said a bullet was extracted from a bedroom wall during a search of Webb’s home about 18 months ago. DNA tests eventually confirmed blood on the bullet belonged to Alex Carter.
At the time they went missing, Susan Carter, 41, was in a contentious custody battle with Lafferty and had told him he would never see his 10-year-old daughter again, according to an FBI flyer from back then. Carter and her daughter were living in Webb’s house when they disappeared.
Hatfield said Webb told investigators that he shot Susan Carter after discovering some money was missing from the home and an argument ensued.
“It was a detailed, undeniable, unconflicted confession,” Hatfield said. Webb indicated “that he believed he had to shoot Alex Carter to avoid detection for having killed Susan Carter.”
Webb wrapped the bodies in bed linens and placed them in his basement that night. Over the next two nights, Webb dug a shallow grave in the woods on his property, burying the mother and daughter in their clothes, Hatfield said.
Those details are “consistent with what we found over the course of the last 24 hours,” Hatfield said.
A landscaper who lived nearby showed up with a crew and two excavators to assist investigators in digging for the bodies, turning the soil over the entire backyard to a depth of about 4.5 feet (1.4 meters).
Before he died, Webb was brought to the excavation site, “but his mind is not what it used to be,” Rausa said. “He couldn’t pinpoint the location. And with surgical precision, these two operators worked those excavators and literally went row by row by row.”
Monday was the third day of digging.
“The way the crime was detailed to us by Larry Webb and the condition we found the bodies in confirmed for us with a high degree of certainty that the two bodies found are those of Susan and Alex Carter,” Rausa said.
The FBI announced a renewed push for answers in the case in 2021. Police executed search warrants at Webb’s home in 2022 and 2023. During one of those searches, Webb told news outlets he did not know what happened to the girl and did not know when he last saw her.
“I don’t remember,” Webb said. “I have dementia. I can’t say exactly.”
Webb was indicted last October on a murder charge in the girl’s disappearance, but his incarceration was delayed until this month due to his deteriorating health. He was transferred from the Southern Regional Jail to a medical wing at Mount Olive last week.
Someone fishing with a magnet dredged up new evidence in couple’s killing, officials say
McRAE-HELENA, Ga. (AP) — Someone using a magnet to fish for metal objects in a Georgia creek pulled up a rifle as well as some lost belongings of a couple found slain in the same area more than nine years ago.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says driver’s licenses, credit cards and other items dragged from Horse Creek in rural Telfair County are “new evidence” in a murder case that’s still awaiting trial.
A citizen who was magnet fishing in the creek on April 14 discovered a .22-caliber rifle, the GBI said in a news release Monday. The unnamed person returned to the same spot two days later and made another find: A bag containing a cellphone, a pair of driver’s licenses and credit cards.
The agency says the licenses and credit cards belonged to Bud and June Runion. The couple was robbed and fatally shot before their bodies were discovered off a county road in January 2015.
Authorities say the couple, from Marietta north of Atlanta, made the three-hour drive to Telfair County to meet someone offering to sell Bud Runion a 1966 Mustang.
A few days later, investigators arrested Ronnie Adrian “Jay” Towns on charges of armed robbery and murder. They said Towns lured the couple to Telfair County by replying to an online ad that the 69-year-old Bud Runion had posted seeking a classic car, though Towns didn’t own such a vehicle.
Georgia courts threw out Towns’ first indictment over problems with how the grand jury was selected — a prolonged legal battle that concluded in 2019. Towns was indicted for a second time in the killings in 2020, and the case was delayed again by the COVID-19 pandemic. He has pleaded not guilty.
Court proceedings have also likely been slowed by prosecutors’ decision to seek the death penalty, which requires extra pretrial legal steps.
Towns’ defense attorney, Franklin Hogue, did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment Tuesday.
Prosecutors are preparing for Towns’ trial to start as soon as August, though no date has been set, said District Attorney Tim Vaughn of the Oconee Judicial Circuit, which includes Telfair County. He said the newly discovered evidence should prove useful.
“It was a good case already,” Vaughn said Tuesday, “but this makes it an even better case.”
He said the rifle from the creek is the same caliber as the gun that killed the Runions, though investigators are still trying to determine whether it’s the weapon used in the crime.
The items found in the creek also led investigators to obtain warrants to search a Telfair County home where they recovered additional evidence. The GBI’s statement gave no further details and Vaughn declined to comment on what was found.
West Virginia
Dying suspect’s confession leads to remains that may be that of long-missing woman, daughter
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A confession by a suspect in failing health led authorities to what they believe are the remains of a long-missing woman and her daughter who were buried in the backyard of a southern West Virginia home.
Susan Carter and her daughter, Natasha “Alex” Carter, have not been seen since Aug. 8, 2000. Authorities announced that they found what were believed to be the pair’s remains Monday at the home of suspect Larry Webb, hours after the man’s death.
“It’s kind of a sad day, but also a happy day because I can bring my baby home,” Alex Carter’s father, Rick Lafferty, said at a news conference Tuesday at state police headquarters in South Charleston.
Webb, who was in his 80s, suffered a medical episode on Monday at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex, where he was being held without bond after having been arrested earlier this month in connection with the girl’s death. Webb was pronounced dead at a hospital six hours before the remains were discovered.
“A bit of a poetic ending that not even I can write,” Raleigh County Prosecutor Ben Hatfield said at the news conference.
Webb’s confession earlier this month led authorities to find the bodies, which have been sent to the state medical examiner’s office for autopsies. That confession came after Webb was confronted with mounting evidence. FBI Supervisory Special Agent Tony Rausa said a bullet was extracted from a bedroom wall during a search of Webb’s home about 18 months ago. DNA tests eventually confirmed blood on the bullet belonged to Alex Carter.
At the time they went missing, Susan Carter, 41, was in a contentious custody battle with Lafferty and had told him he would never see his 10-year-old daughter again, according to an FBI flyer from back then. Carter and her daughter were living in Webb’s house when they disappeared.
Hatfield said Webb told investigators that he shot Susan Carter after discovering some money was missing from the home and an argument ensued.
“It was a detailed, undeniable, unconflicted confession,” Hatfield said. Webb indicated “that he believed he had to shoot Alex Carter to avoid detection for having killed Susan Carter.”
Webb wrapped the bodies in bed linens and placed them in his basement that night. Over the next two nights, Webb dug a shallow grave in the woods on his property, burying the mother and daughter in their clothes, Hatfield said.
Those details are “consistent with what we found over the course of the last 24 hours,” Hatfield said.
A landscaper who lived nearby showed up with a crew and two excavators to assist investigators in digging for the bodies, turning the soil over the entire backyard to a depth of about 4.5 feet (1.4 meters).
Before he died, Webb was brought to the excavation site, “but his mind is not what it used to be,” Rausa said. “He couldn’t pinpoint the location. And with surgical precision, these two operators worked those excavators and literally went row by row by row.”
Monday was the third day of digging.
“The way the crime was detailed to us by Larry Webb and the condition we found the bodies in confirmed for us with a high degree of certainty that the two bodies found are those of Susan and Alex Carter,” Rausa said.
The FBI announced a renewed push for answers in the case in 2021. Police executed search warrants at Webb’s home in 2022 and 2023. During one of those searches, Webb told news outlets he did not know what happened to the girl and did not know when he last saw her.
“I don’t remember,” Webb said. “I have dementia. I can’t say exactly.”
Webb was indicted last October on a murder charge in the girl’s disappearance, but his incarceration was delayed until this month due to his deteriorating health. He was transferred from the Southern Regional Jail to a medical wing at Mount Olive last week.
