….apparently, there’s some veracity to it, as in, there HAVE been rapes in Marion.
Over the past THREE YEARS, that is.
And whether it’s a “serial rapist” remains sort of unknown at this point.
But here’s the type of thing that was going around the internet, rather recklessly on some pages (not ours; as you can see, our readers approached it sensibly by asking questions and not just making blanket statements willy-nilly), a couple of weeks ago:
One of our Marion correspondents at the time made some inquiries and was told that it was an “internet rumor” and there was no “serial rapist” out there. This morning, in an article in the Southern Illinoisan, Marion Police Chief Dawn Tondini re-confirmed that, stating that there has been “one criminal sexual assault reported each year beginning in 2011″…which amounts to three (or four, if counting THIS year) since that time. Of course, we all know that those aren’t the ONLY rapes (we call them what they are, here; we don’t coddle the crims and make them feel better by calling them the ‘legal’ term ‘criminal sexual assault’) going on in Marion, as child molesters continue to do their thing, and there are undoubtedly those that don’t get reported, as is the case in a lot of places…but those are the ones to which Tondini is referring, so those are the ones being investigated.
She also called the occurrences “sporadic,” with “no recurring pattern,” definitely not hallmarks of a ‘serial rapist.’ And she mentioned that there are no suspects.
Tondini also stated that anyone worried about the situation needed to take precautions, which include common sense action like keeping residences well-lit, use of exterior motion detection lighting, and maybe having an alarm system installed in a residence…likely precautions Marion residents are taking since the internet rumor took off weeks ago anyway.
And of course, if you’re concerned about what appears to be an internet rumor, do the smart thing and call the PD; Tondini is a good chief and won’t let this kind of thing go unaddressed if it’s real….which in this case, appears to be the case, sort of, but on a much lower level than what it was being made out to be.