Police in Georgia managed to solve a murder case from 2015 using a rifle scooped out of a creek by a magnet fisher.
Ronnie Jay Towns pleaded guilty to the 2015 murders of Bud and June Runion earlier this year and has now been sentenced to life in prison without parole, according to Telfair County Sheriff Sim Davidson.
The case had a major break earlier this year when a magnet fisher was angling for metal in a creek near the spot where the couple was found murdered in 2015. Not only did the fisher manage to find the .22 caliber rifle, they also found some of the Runions’ belongings as well, CBS News reports.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation added the Runions’ drivers licenses, credit cards, and other items to the state’s evidence against Towns.
Police officials said the fisher found the rifle first, and then returned two days later and found the couple’s personal effects.
The couple were found killed just off a nearby county road. Officials said they had been robbed, and that their bodies and car were found at different locations, according to WMAZ-TV.
Prosecutors argued that Towns used an online ad selling a classic car to lure the couple out to the spot, where he presumably intended to rob them. They drove three hours to look at the vehicle, but never return to their home.
Towns was eventually charged with the killing, but his trial was delayed multiple times, first in 2015 due to a lack of jurors reporting for jury duty, and again in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The new evidence allowed investigators and prosecutors to press Towns, after which he decided to plead guilty.
Now he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison.
“We are thankful to have closure in this case, and our prayers are with both families,” Davidson said on Monday.
It’s not terribly uncommon for magnet fishers to find strange objects on their outings. A New York City couple that vlogs their outings on YouTube have turned up handguns — which they then turn over to the police — as well as a safe containing $100,000 in waterlogged $100 bills.
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