The appeals court did not agree with that argument and reinstated first-degree murder charges and concealing the death of a person in connection with former Chief Richard Young’s death. Fox reported Young, 71, was a retired police chief in Maquon, Illinois, and was involved in a relationship with Oglesby at the time of his death, according to court documents. Maquon is located about 150 miles southwest of Chicago, CBS News reported.
The police investigation began last fall after a report of a “pungent odor” from a storage unit in Knox County, Illinois.
“Upon being let inside, the officers observed a cardboard box covered by a blanket with cat litter poured around it,” the appellate court decision read. “At first, (Oglesby) claimed the odor was caused by old clothes and a possum that had died in the unit.
“However, (Oglesby) eventually admitted there was a body in the box, and when she opened it, the officers discovered human remains dressed in a flannel shirt and wrapped partially in plastic.”
Oglesby was arrested and charged days later with concealing a non-homicidal death.
In March, police revealed the remains were that of Young after DNA samples were retrieved from the decomposed body and compared to samples obtained from Young’s relatives, CBS said.
The case was adjourned several times until this past February, when Oglesby was additionally charged with first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder, aggravated battery, and concealment of a homicidal death.
According to court documents, Oglesby allegedly used eyedrops and citalopram, an antidepressant, to poison the victim’s food and drink. He is believed to have died between October 2021 and December 2021. His body was hidden for about one year before police were called to investigate the smell coming from the storage unit.
During the investigation, Oglesby told an investigator from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office that the former chief had died from COVID, court documents said. She hid his body in the storage unit “because she could not fulfill Young’s final wishes, which she described as wanting to be buried at an ‘Indian burial mound’ and did not know what to do with it,” court documents read.
However, Oglesby’s story started to fall apart after an investigator spoke to a woman described as “like a step-mom” to Oglesby. She said Oglesby had expressed a desire to poison Young.
“(Oglesby) would go to various locations of Dollar General and buy all of the eyedrops that they had on the shelf,” the woman told investigators, according to court documents.
The woman, whom Fox News didn’t identify, told investigators “how the eyedrops were administered both in food and drink and indicated that both (Oglesby) and (the witness) wanted [Young] out of the house, and he had basically refused to leave,” court documents read.
Last January, investigators found what was described as “a copious amount” of discarded eyedrop bottles, a pill crusher, packaging for the pill crush, and receipts for eyedrops at Dollar General during the execution of a search warrant,” court documents read.
Young’s former sister-in-law, Denise Kruzan, told WQAD, “It’s hard to wrap your head around that somebody could be so evil.”
Oglesby remains free on pretrial release, according to a Knox County State Attorney’s office press release. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for January 8, 2024, in Knox County Court.
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