Illinois State Police

Marianne Akers was driving westbound on Walnut Street at Monday afternoon when she left the road and drove through a field before slamming into the building that houses the YNOT camp. Four people were killed.

Six others were injured. The driver has been identified, but no charges have been filed.

Tonya Piephoff, director of the Illinois Department of Human Services’ Division of Developmental Disabilities, informed employees of the investigation in a letter last week.

In 2024, the Metro East city recorded 20 homicides. At the most recent peak in 2017, that same figure stood at 37.

Illinois promised answers after fatal officer-involved shootings and other deaths at the hands of law enforcement. But some prosecutors, including some in the Metro East, stay silent.

The Illinois State Police have already installed 78 cameras in St. Clair County and plans to add them to Madison County later this year.

Former funeral director surrendered his license in March after state regulators found deplorable conditions. The new owner recently found three disembodied human legs — although a mundane explanation emerged.

Matt Mitchell, a former Illinois State Trooper who pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter of two Metro East sisters in 2007, abandoned his efforts to have a hearing into the restoration of his driving privileges — for now.

Illinois hospitals routinely skirt one of the nation’s strongest laws protecting victims of sexual assault — including Alton Memorial and Blessing Hospital in Quincy.

Hugh Moran, the director for the Centralia-based Moran Queen-Boggs Funeral Home, asserted complaints about his business were spurred by soured business deals. But, admitted the embalming room was “unkempt" and will require a dumpster to clean up.