Police investigating the mysterious disappearance of an elderly couple who placed an ad looking for a 1966 Mustang on Craigslist recovered the bodies of a male and female Monday in Georgia.
Authorities also said the couple’s car was found submerged in a nearby lake. The bodies recovered have yet to be identified.
Elrey “Bud” Runion, 69, and his 66-year-old wife June Runion, of Cobb County, went missing on Friday after planning to look at a car from a seller on Craigslist in McRae, in southeastern Georgia.
The elderly couple was reported missing by their three daughters Friday when they did not show up to baby-sit their grandchildren as promised. Family members told WAGA that the couple was last seen in Marietta, outside Atlanta, Thursday morning. They were planning on driving to the small town of McRae, in southeastern Georgia, to look at a 1966 Ford Mustang they were interested in buying from someone on Craigslist.
Authorities were able to trace the couple’s last communications to a cell phone purchased by the alleged suspect Ronnie “Jay” Towns, where they found the couple’s car in a shallow pond in Telfair County in Southeast Georgia on Monday.
“We investigated the last communications that the Runions had,” said Telfair County Sheriff Chris Steverson. “We traced that to a cell phone in Telfair County. And we’ve traced that cell phone to the purchaser of it, which was Mr. Towns.”
Towns was convinced by family members and officials to turn himself in. He will be indicted for giving false statements to investigators and criminal attempt to commit theft by deception.
Authorities are waiting for a positive identification of the bodies and have notified relatives of the Runion’s. In the meantime, the bodies found are being sent to the Georgia state crime lab for identification and autopsies, according to Steverson.
Steverson stated that authorities found no evidence that Towns owned the 1966 Ford Mustang that Runion was planning to purchase.
