CARBONDALE, Ill.—The reaction to the news of former Carbondale police chief Jody O’Guinn’s termination yesterday was captured in interviews with family members of the two young people who lost their lives in that city…and whose deaths remain uninvestigated and unresolved.
Molly Young was 21 when she died of a single bullet wound to the head, with her ex-boyfriend, Richie Minton, in the room as the only “witness,” yet to this day, he has never been formally questioned by law enforcement because of various screwups in the investigation on the morning of March 24, 2012, when her death was called in as a ‘drug overdose.’ It was later characterized as a ‘suicide’…until a coroner’s jury ruled manner as ‘unknown,’ thus ruling out suicide. Her father, Larry Young, has filed a wrongful death suit in Jackson County Circuit Court against Minton.
Pravin Varughese
Pravin Varughese was 19 when his body was found frozen in a wooded area behind Kohl’s and Buffalo Wild Wings on the east side of Carbondale February 18. Varughese had been missing for six days before his body was found. Police had plenty to go on, as a state trooper actually encountered another young man, Gaege Bethune, at the time of Varughese’s ‘disappearance.’ The encounter was caught on film. Yet no official questioning of Bethune has been conducted. Varughese’s family has filed a wrongful death suit in Jackson County Circuit Court against Bethune, the city of Carbondale, and O’Guinn.
Former Carbondale police chief Jody O’Guinn
Yesterday, Monica Zukas of RealityCheck at WGGH radio interviewed both Larry Young and Lovely Varughese, Pravin’s mother, for her radio show. Their reactions to O’Guinn’s firing (which has been characterized as “having nothing to do with the ‘controversies’,” as city manager Kevin Baity noted) are part of this show Zukas recorded. Give it a listen.
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