RICHLAND CO.—Members of the family of Ed Hataway who still want to see his death resolved have been actively pursuing ways to get authorities to focus on the case.
But the situation involving the lead investigator has slammed into a brick wall, and has caused concern among Hataway’s supporters that the Illinois State Police, as a total, aren’t taking the matter seriously at all.
Hataway went missing a year ago September 16. His last known communication on that night indicated that he was at his apartment at the DC Sales building out on west Illinois 250, near the Walmart Distribution Center, and had planned to pick up a mowing job the next day.
When he didn’t show up, and family couldn’t contact him in subsequent days, a missing persons report was made with Olney authorities (as that location, while out in the county, is annexed in to Olney as city property, and under the purview of city police).
Was not taken seriously at first
No policing agencies took the matter seriously until a few days later, when a civilian search group, mostly on horseback in order to search the woods on the south and east of the apartment property, went out to try and find Hataway, and media began covering it. Police, it appeared, were only concerned with whether the horses would be trampling a potential crime scene.
From there, Illinois State Police finally became involved, but didn’t seem very active…until November 7, when a body was found near a box culvert off U.S. 50 not far from Red Hill State Park in Lawrence County.
The suspicion was that the body was Hataway’s, but wasn’t confirmed until several weeks later.
At that point in time, despite the fact that the body was found in Lawrence, Richland County picked up the case as a homicide, and not a peep has been heard from the investigators, to the public, anyway, since that time.
Keeping the case alive
Frustrated family members have attempted to keep the story alive in regional media ever since then, but have had a difficult way to go, since there have been no new leads, and since the Richland County State’s Attorney’s office has declared they are in charge of the investigation, with ISP being the investigatory arm.
Richland County state’s attorney David Hyde has gained notoriety in the region as the most ‘do-nothing’ prosecutor around, unless, of course, it comes to cases that shouldn’t be filed, such as charging Texan Brandon Jenkins with murder (see previous issues).
It wasn’t until Disclosure ran a two-part series of articles in early Summer 2013 about the Hataway case that anyone from ISP made mention to the family about anything that was going on in it.
The series was about a massive probate case filed in Richland County court that has dragged on since 2004. The case caught Disclosure’s attention because of the fact that there had been a setting to determine some crucial matters relating to executorship of the probate dated September 17, 2012—the day after Ed Hataway disappeared.
And considering the bare animosity that had already occurred in conjunction with the case—and prompted John and Ed Hataway, as well as John’s girlfriend Anita Scott, to file Orders of Protection against the other two brothers, William and Dan—there was a lot of material to draw from in the series, and to come to a tentative conclusion that there might have been some fraternal involvement in Ed Hataway’s disappearance, if not actually his death.
Brown castigates
At the time the series was published, investigator Tim Brown—who has handled the investigations of other murders or alleged murders in the area, including the conviction of Tyler McQueen in Lawrence County, and the prosecution of Denny Blanchard in Clay County—contacted Scott, as she had quoted the probate article on the Facebook page set up for the group supporting finding Hataway’s killer.
Brown, Scott reported, immediately castigated her, asking her “how she got her information” that was the source of the quote.
“Are you feeding Disclosure information?” Brown asked Scott.
Scott, who had not been in contact with Disclosure for many months prior to the discovery of the probate, questioned Brown as to whether he’d even examined the probate, as well as the OPs.
Brown said he didn’t know what she was talking about…leading her to the growing realization that Brown wasn’t really doing anything as regards an “active” investigation if he was overlooking the probate, out of which the OPs had sprung.
Brown concluded his conversation with Scott by telling her not to talk to media; and that if she did, she could be charged with Obstruction of Justice, a claim which is a lie, as it is against the law for an official to attempt to “gag” anyone about any case in which they have knowledge (violation of First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, and, if talking to a news outlet, of freedom of the press).
The strip joint
Upon learning of this exchange, Disclosure began looking into Timothy Brown, 51, of Effingham…and discovered some interesting material that likely was the cause of his utter contempt for Disclosure.
As it turns out, back in March 2010 (the 26th, to be exact), Brown, Special Agent for ISP out of Zone 7 investigations, was in attendance at a family member’s bachelor party at that paragon of all that is non-virtuous in Cumberland County, the Schoolhouse Gentlemen’s Club.
This place, also known as a low-end strip joint, has been the cause of much consternation in Cumberland County, as it was really at one time a beloved schoolhouse. When the old Pioneer School in Neoga was purchased by Bob Kearney and Travis Funneman in 2009 and converted to a strip club, neighbors, former students of the more than 50-year-old school, and community leaders were up in arms. They were so up in arms that they tried to slide in an ordinance prohibiting “lewd conduct” in the county, but the business was already in the process of being established, and a suit, which is still in litigation in Cumberland, was filed.
Felony charges
During Brown’s little jaunt at the March 26, 2010, bachelor party at the questionable business, the only one of its kind within 60 miles any direction, an altercation broke out, and Brown was ultimately charged with two Class 3 felony counts of Aggravated Battery.
Court documents in the first count show that Brown “committed battery…and while Terry L. Parker was at the Schoolhouse Gentlemen’s Club, a public place of amusement, (Brown) knowingly caused bodily harm to Parker, in that he choked (him).”
The second count declares that Brown “knowingly cause bodily harm to Mark A. Diveley, in that he pushed Dively in the chest.”
The charges emerged from what amounted to a major fight in the strip joint, likely fueled by plenty of alcohol, which is not served at the business (thus avoiding the need for a liquor license) but which patrons are allowed, and encouraged, to bring with them.
Those charges were a long time coming, however. The case languished for nearly a year in the hands of various law enforcement entities before anyone actually turned over police reports and then-state’s attorney Barry Shaefer filed the two felonies.
Brown lawyered up with Effingham attorney Lou Viverito, and went into motion, submitting subpoenas to the law enforcement entities’ representatives across the southern half of the state, including ISP captains and internal investigation agents.
Plead, and dread
On February 28, 2011, in what was for all intents and purposes a negotiated plea, Brown’s felonies were amended to reflect only a simple misdemeanor, Reckless Conduct, and he entered a plea to that on the same day it was filed.
In the amended plea, Brown was charged with “attempting, in a reckless manner, to separate persons involved in an altercation at the Schoolhouse Gentlemen’s Club” on the night in question, “thereby endangering the bodily safety of a person involved in the altercation.”
While Brown, who is roughly the size of a linebacker, might have posed a danger to the “bodily safety” of people involved in an altercation by trying to break it up, that doesn’t exactly explain “choking” Terry Parker.
Nevertheless, the ISP investigator came away from the nearly year-long mess with only a misdemeanor instead of a felony on his record.
Brown, during the Tyler McQueen murder trial in Lawrence County in April and May of 2013, repeatedly expressed disgust toward Disclosure, the only news organization to give day-by-day multi-media coverage of the event.
As this was months before the series on the Hataway probate, it was unclear just why Brown was so vicious.
Unless, of course, it could be attributed to dread that Disclosure would find out about the indiscretion in Cumberland County.
Attempts to reach Brown at District 12 in Effingham by deadline of this issue (September 8, 2013) were unsuccessful, as most calls to investigative offices at the state police are unreturned to this news organization. Detailed messages left by Disclosure staff to supervisor Kelly Hodge asking about Brown’s indiscretions as well as about the Hataway case were also unreturned by Brown as of press time, but Hodge advised that Brown would “have no comment.”
Wants Brown out
At the current time, Anita Scott and John Hataway are attempting to get the public more involved in encouraging the state to look more closely at every aspect of not only Ed Hataway’s death, but the lingering probate case and the OPs, long since dismissed but still pertinent, filed as a result of the probate.
They have been holding meetings in order to increase public knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Ed Hataway’s disappearance and death.
Mainly, they are looking to put pressure on the investigatory agency responsible for learning the truth of the matter, which may involve a plea for ISP to get Brown off the case, as, said Scott, “all we have endured is harassment, incompetence and threats” from Brown instead of a real investigation.
“We are the victims. We need help,” Scott said. “We are tired of Tim Brown lessening Ed’s death by saying he has ‘all these counties and all these cases’ and puts Ed’s case on the back burner.”
Scott can be reached on Facebook at her personal page, where she can add those interested to the page “Missing: Ed Hataway.”