EDGAR CO.—The investigation into the death of an Edgar County pilot took a dramatic turn on the evening of Monday, November 18, 2013.
That was when two airplanes, owned by Bryan Phillips of Terre Haute, were bombed/set afire as well as vandalized while sitting at the tarmac at the Edgar County Airport in rural Paris, Illinois.
Bryan Phillips is the Terre Haute man who owned the aircraft pilot Rusty Bogue, of RSB Aviation, was flying for Phillips when the craft went down in a wooded area outside of the airport, shortly after takeoff, on August 27 of this year.
The fire and vandalism came on the heels of the publication of a detailed timeline leading up to the death of Bogue being published in Disclosure’s November edition (Nov. 6).
It also occurred three years after a war of wills was being waged within the Edgar County airport between the airport manager Jimmy Wells and his buddy, airport board member Chris Patrick, and the man who would later die in the plane crash, Rusty Bogue.
It was this war that the very revealing timeline—which points out that Patrick, who was on the board of Citizens Bank at the time, asked Bogue to conduct illegal activity as regards Phillips’ airplanes—was set to outline. The timeline noted not only the request Patrick made of Bogue as regards illegalities with Phillips’ planes, but noted that Phillips had fallen behind in his loan payments on them at the bank where Patrick was on the board.
The shocking act of what can only be termed terrorism at the airport has underscored the importance of the public learning exactly what kind of machinations are going on within Edgar County entities, and not only the excessive waste of taxpayers’ dollars, but the sheer criminality to which those in the business of wasting those dollars will stoop in order to maintain the status quo.
Observed by passerby
The fires were reported to authorities at about 10:10 p.m. the night of the 18th, by an individual passing by the airport at that time. The individual phoned 911 at that time.
There has been no estimate given as to what time the fires may have actually been started.
Responding fire and law enforcement officials were able to extinguish the fires but the planes were both a total loss.
After the blazes and smoke had cleared, responding officials noticed that on the side of each airplane, someone had written words with dayglo orange spray paint.
On one plane was written “This Is Our Airport.” On the other was “Fuck Rob.”
The second message was most likely directed toward Robert Bogue, Rusty’s father.
Rob Bogue immediately contacted the Illinois Department of Transportation Director of Aeronautics division, Susan Shay, and made a request that she shut down the airport until a thorough investigation into the matter could be conducted.
As of press time, the airport remained open.
Disclosure reached the communications director for Shay’s department, Paris Ervin, the day after the fire, but Ervin explained that Shay would likely not be commenting on whether or not such a thing as shutting down the airport would take place.
ATF, FBI and possible IP subpoenas
However, because of a discovery on one of the airplanes, an additional investigative agency came to Paris to enter their appearance into the matter in less than 24 hours.
An undetonated explosive device had been found on one of the airplanes. This brought in agents from the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) to the scene.
And in less than 48 hours, two agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation Champaign office were present as well, because any tampering with an aircraft is considered a federal crime, and thus warrants the FBI’s presence.
The remains of the airplanes became part of a federal investigation, which was being methodically conducted as of press time.
As part of the investigation, some incriminating posts on the McClatchy-owned topix.com website, made the night before the fires, seemingly implying that someone knew something was going to happen, have also been pointed out to investigators.
One post listed a formula of sorts for an explosive device. Another described antics of someone driving from Kansas to Paris and made reference to “my boys.”
Another post, written by screen name “ashs to ashs,” stated “Ashs to ashs dust to dust have a merry Fnnn…Christmas ho ho.”
The sender’s IP address shows up on topix as Danville, which is an area where servers for many local cell phones in Edgar are sited.
Fortunately, one of the easiest things for federal agents to do is obtain a subpoena for a website such as topix, especially if the matter is one of a security nature.
Timeline takes up a year ago in November
In the wake of the explosion and fire, this month the timeline of events leading up to Rusty Bogue’s death continues, picking up with November-December 2012, when scrutiny was coming upon the airport and certain financial records.
The timeline this issue begins on November 30, 2012, when attempts to resolve a hangar lease termination airport manager Jimmy Wells handed Rusty Bogue fell through, after both Jayne Brown and Casey Bogue went, on separate occasions, to visit Chris Patrick, newly-elected to the Edgar County board, at his business, Zimmerly Concrete.
Upon Patrick taking the oath of office in early December 2012, it came to the attention of the Edgar County Watchdogs that the issue, according to Wells, was his perception that Bogue wasn’t paying workmen’s compensation insurance.
Upon publication by the Watchdogs that Bogue was indeed paying such insurance, during the months of November-December, Wells, in consultation with Mark Isaf, the Edgar County State’s Attorney, denies access to public records, financial records of the airport. When asked why, Isaf advised the Watchdogs that they “did not have the right to ‘audit’ all the financial records of the airport,” this despite the fact that Illinois’ Local Records Act and the Freedom of Information Act gives anyone the right to do so.
Restricted work space
Nevertheless, on December 22, 2012, Bogue asked Jayne Brown to “come to the airport to be a witness in case anything happened.”
Upon arrival she noticed Wells taping off the section of the hanger that he said Bogue was not renting. This section was the northeast corner of the main hanger. This meant that Bogue was limited to only working on small airplanes. Bogue explained to Wells that this was Wells’ area that he had his plane in (Wells had not been paying rent and believed this to be a perk of his position despite the fact it was not in his employee contract).
Wells got in Bogue’s face, and state that he wasn’t even paying his own (Bogue’s) rent, a statement Bogue questioned. Their rent had always been paid by debit card each month by Lisa Gill (Chris Patrick’s current girlfriend for whom he made a position at the airport as a secretary) charging the card. This was paid each month automatically. Bogue then went to Gill and asked her if the rent had been charged to his debit card. Gill tells him no. When questioned why, she said that Wells had told her not to do so. All of this was witnessed by Jayne Brown. At some point Wells asks Dale Barkley to listen to his and Bogue’s conversation. Shortly thereafter, Dale quietly excuses himself.
Attempts to block business
In December 2012, Wells tells Bogue to remove an airplane that was being worked on for a client in the main hanger, so that Wells can park a snowplow in the main hanger (this had never been done before in the three years he had been there). It is December and a snowstorm had been forecast, but Wells tells Bogue he needs the snowplow in hanger so he can ‘paint’ it. Bogue explains that this plane has to be done that day and delivered. It is soon noticed that the snowplow had been parked outside two main hanger doors blocking access and making delivery to Bogue’s client impossible. RSB Aviation’s lawyers, Sheriff Ed Motley, and one or two of the county board members are called by Bogue and informed of situation. The snowplow is eventually removed.
In the meanwhile, at the December 3, 2012 county board meeting, the board was being informed that Wells was storing his private airplane in the hangar without paying rent on the space…to which Patrick makes a feeble attempt at justifying.
Regardless of this, on December 8, it was reported that Wells removed his private plane from the hangar he hadn’t been paying rent on.
To date, there has been no rent paid for the hangar space.
The timeline takes up again with January information in the December 18, 2013 edition….and just maybe, with an arrest in the fire, explosion and vandalism of the airplanes at the Edgar County Airport.
