Murder charges were reinstated against an Illinois woman who was accused of lethally poisoning a local police chief’s food with eyedrops.
Charges were dropped against Marcy Oglesby, 51, in March after the trial judge sided with her defense team’s argument that Oglesby was deprived of her right to a speedy trial.
An Illinois appeals court overturned that decision, and Olgesby is back in jail on charges of first-degree murder and concealing the death of a person in connection with Richard Young’s gruesome death.
Young, 71, was a retired police chief in Maquon, Illinois, and was in a relationship with Oglesby at the time of his death, according to court documents.
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A pungent odor emanating from a west central Illinois storage unit in Knox County prompted police response on Oct. 7, 2022.
“Upon being let inside, the officers observed a cardboard box covered by a blanket with cat litter poured around it,” the 18-page appellate court decision says. “At first, (Oglesby) claimed the odor was caused by old clothes and a possum that had died in the unit.
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“However, (Oglesby) eventually admitted there was a body in the box, and when she opened it, the officers discovered human remains dressed in a flannel shirt and wrapped partially in plastic.”
Four days later, she was arrested and charged with concealing a non-homicidal death.
Her lawyer, chief public defender David Hansen, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The case was adjourned multiple times until February 2023, when prosecutors tacked on more severe charges of first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder, aggravated battery and concealment of a homicidal death.
Oglesby allegedly used eyedrops and citalopram, an antidepressant prescription, to poison Young’s food and drink, and he died sometime between October 2021 and December 2021, according to court documents.
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His body was allegedly hidden in the storage unit for about a year until law enforcement caught on.
Oglesby allegedly told an investigator in the Knox County Sheriff’s Office that Young died in their home from COVID, according to court documents.
She allegedly told the investigator that she hid his body in the storage unit “because she could not fulfill Young’s final wishes, which she described as wanting to be buried at an ‘Indian burial mound,’ and did not know what to do with it,” court documents say.
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Another investigator spoke to a woman whom court documents described as “like a step-mom” to Oglesby.
She told investigators that Oglesby allegedly planned on poisoning Young.
“(Oglesby) would go to various locations of Dollar General and buy all of the eye drops that they had on the shelf,” the witness told investigators, court documents allege.
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She also allegedly told investigators “how the eye drops were administered both in food and drink and indicated that both (Oglesby) and (the witness) ultimately wanted [Young] out of the house, and he had basically refused to leave,” according to court documents.
In January, investigators found “a copious amount” of discarded eye drop bottles, a pill crusher, packaging for the pill crush and receipts for eye drops at Dollar General during the execution of a search, court documents allege.
A pretrial hearing is set for Jan. 8, 2024, in Knox County Court.
Oglesby remains out of custody on pretrial release, the Knox County State Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
