Larry Young calls me on a Wednesday afternoon, when I'm struggling to finish a cup of coffee while it's still hot and somehow simultaneously entertain my toddler. They might be brief and held hurriedly between nap times and appointments and playdates, but I look forward to my calls with Larry. He has a keen memory and a voice for storytelling; every time we speak, I learn something.

This week he has called to comment on my most recent article about police corruption in Southern Illinois, and more specifically Carbondale. My late night research-binges, conducted in near silence after my son goes to sleep, have barely scratched the surface. Lucky for me, Larry has plenty of information to share.

"Falon Taylor," Larry dives right in. "Have you heard about her?"

I hadn't. And down the rabbit hole we went. Falon Taylor was a 21-year-old Carbondale woman who was murdered in 2007 by Elijah Lacy. He was facing charges of murder and home invasion with a firearm when his case was dismissed, allegedly for violating his right to a speedy trial. The trial had been pushed back while a key witness was on bedrest for a high-risk pregnancy, and pushed back again when Carbondale Police Special Agent Dale Reamy, the officer who filed the physical evidence to be used in the trial, was serving overseas for the National Guard. Though Lacy's attorneys had in fact been the ones to insist that Reamy be present for cross-examination, they still argued that the delay violated Lacy's constitutional rights. However, Carbondale is a small town and the gossip flies freely. Many alleged--even before the speedy trial violation--that Lacy would get off because he was important to both local government officials and law enforcement, as an informer and an enforcer of sorts. After the case was reopened and Lacy recharged, he pled guilty to home invasion and was given 10 years, with time served and the possibility of parole after 5 years. Not nearly a harsh enough sentence for someone who shot a woman to death in cold blood, but Jackson County State Attorney Michael Carr once again proved that he is unable to handle any case appropriately.

In May of this year, musician Timothy Beaty was shot and killed in his home when a violent altercation broke out during a fraternity party at the house next door. Several individuals were firing weapons at each other when, according to police, a stray bullet struck and killed Beaty. However, two witnesses came forward to contest that version of events, saying that shots broke out at the party between several armed guests and the police. The witnesses fled in a panic to Beaty's house and he let them in, going so far as to shield them from the gunfire. Attorney Michael Carr charged one of the men responsible for Beaty's brutal death with one count of reckless discharge of a firearm. It was made clear, through various statements to the media, that none of those involved were Southern Illinois University students and that the community is still safe and welcoming to college students.

In 2012, SIU student Nathan Morrow was found dead in The Pinch Penny Pub in Carbondale, with several severe lacerations to his head. Though the multiple wounds appeared to be the result of blunt force trauma, his death was ruled as accidental, with the CPD claiming they were sustained during a fall. According to Larry, the owner of the pub is not unlike Richie Minton and his father, being that he has convenient ties to several local government officials. He would have had no trouble making sure that the case was quickly closed and swept under the rug, preventing his business from being tarnished and Carbondale from being deemed unsafe.

Then you have the suspicious Southern Illinois "hypothermia" deaths. In all of the cases, violent physical wounds have been noted on the bodies of the deceased, but found to be noncontributing factors to their deaths. In each case, law enforcement quickly and vehemently denied foul play was a possibility. Across the board, hurried and minimal investigative work was done to discover the circumstances surrounding the deaths--when any work was done at all. All of the initial autopsies were conducted by Dr. James M. Jacobi, who has been contracted with various coroner's offices in Southern Illinois since the 1980s.

One of these controversial "hypothermia" deaths was discussed in Part 3 of this series; Pravin Varughese was found dead in the woods with blunt force trauma and defensive wounds, yet his death was ruled accidental. Jeannie Schuur, a 22-year-old Murphysboro woman, was found dead by hunters on Thanksgiving Day, also in a heavily wooded area. Despite the fact that she had gone missing under suspicious circumstances and her body was covered in various cuts, scrapes, and bruises, her death too was ruled accidental. Questions were raised as to why she would have set out walking without her cell phone, or how she ended up deep in the woods when she was last seen walking in plain-sight along a roadway. These questions, like so many raised to law enforcement across Southern Illinois, have remained unanswered.

47-year-old Teresa Henderson was found dead in a wooded area near Murphysboro in December of 2014, with several recent injuries to her body--injuries that were noted by officers to be consistent with a recent assault. Yet again, for reasons I can only speculate, her cause of death was ruled as hypothermia. Teresa's daughter had reported that she last saw her mother after she left her mobile home following a fight with her boyfriend. It was not unusual for Teresa to take a walk to cool down. Her daughter has no idea how her mother could have become lost in the woods and succumbed to the elements, or how she would have managed to so seriously injure herself in the process.

"If you want to know what I think," Larry says, "it all goes back to Carbondale being a college town. It's important that Southern Illinois maintains its reputation. It's important that Carbondale maintains its reputation." I can see his point. The college brings in the students. The students bring in the money. If Michael Carr or his sycophants in law enforcement were forced to admit how dangerous Southern Illinois really is, it would no longer be a haven for unworldly and eager college students. Dead people don't matter to them, because dead people don't bring in any revenue. It's a harsh and callous truth, but it's still, unfortunately, the truth.

"How much time do you got?" Larry asks me. "Because I could keep going all day." But today, like most days, my time is short. My work will be left for another day, and there will always be more work. Larry will always keep seeking justice for his daughter Molly and those like her. People who have been passed over and deemed unimportant by the justice system, people who have grieving families still aching for answers. People like Larry will always seek out the truth, and people like me will always be there to make sure it's heard.

If you have any comments or information regarding the cases in this story, please contact me at theblackswanbooks@outlook.com.