Someone fishing with a magnet dredged up new evidence in Georgia couple’s killing, officials say
McRAE-HELENA, Ga. — Someone using a magnet to fish for metal objects in a Georgia creek pulled out a rifle, as well as some lost belongings of a couple who were murdered in the same area more than nine years ago.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says driver’s licenses, credit cards and other items recovered from Horse Creek in rural Telfair County are “new evidence” in a murder case 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 discovery: a bag containing a cell phone, some 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 shot before their bodies were discovered along a provincial road in January 2015.
Authorities say the couple, from Marietta, north of Atlanta, made the three-hour drive to Telfair County to meet someone who wanted 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 responding to an online advertisement that 69-year-old Bud Runion had placed looking for a classic car, even though Towns did not own such a vehicle.
According to the GBI, Towns is tentatively scheduled to stand trial in August, more than nine years after his arrest. His attorney, Franklin Hogue, did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment Tuesday.
The items found in the creek prompted investigators to obtain warrants to search a home in Telfair County, where they found additional evidence, the GBI statement said. The agency provided no further details.
Georgia courts dismissed Towns’ first indictment due to issues with how the grand jury was selected — a protracted legal battle that concluded in 2019. Towns was charged a second time in the murders in 2020, and the case was postponed again due to the COVID-19 crisis. 19 pandemic. He has pleaded not guilty.
Legal proceedings are also likely to have been delayed by prosecutors’ decision to seek the death penalty, which would require additional legal steps in the pretrial phase.