Slain couple in Craigslist case found ‘lying separately’

The narrow lane through planted pines where a Marietta couple was found slain Tuesday lies less than a mile from their accused killer’s mobile home.

The bodies of Bud and June Runion, both shot in the head, were left beneath the trees just off County Road 145, a dirt stretch between Old Prison Camp Road and U.S. 441.

“They were lying separately, one on either side of that two-path road,” Telfair County Sheriff Chris Steverson said Wednesday.

The spot, above Alligator Creek some 10 miles south of McRae-Helena, is about a quarter-mile north of the pond where the couple’s small SUV was submerged.

Through the woods, the pond is maybe 3,000 feet from where murder suspect Jay Towns, 28, lived in a trailer behind his parents’ house.

Bud Runion, 69, who’d traveled to Telfair County to buy a 1966 Ford Mustang last Thursday, apparently had negotiated a Craigslist deal with someone in the area. He and his wife, June, 66, are thought to have stopped and asked directions at Kinnett’s Antique & Flea Market about 5:30 p.m. that day.

The market, about five miles north of where their bodies turned up, was about to close when the Runions pulled up. Owner Angela Kinnett was out front watching one of her grandchildren play on a swing set.

Bud Runion spoke to Kinnett’s husband, James. He said he was looking for a dirt road near the tiny Jacksonville community, down toward the Ocmulgee River.

“He was not in distress,” Angela Kinnett, 55, said Wednesday. “He seemed like he was intent on finding this address.”

Runion may not have known the name of the person he was trying to find. James Kinnett, a former farmer who now drives a school bus, apparently asked Runion if he knew who he was heading to meet. Kinnett, 57, has lived in those parts all his life. He knows folks.

“All he said was he had no name, just an address,” said Angela Kinnett, who recalled seeing a woman in the SUV. “Mr. Runion was very polite. He said, ‘Thank you.’”

Two days later, on Saturday, after the search for the Runions hit the news, Angela Kinnett’s daughter saw a picture of the missing couple on Facebook and showed Angela.

“My teeth just dropped,” Angela Kinnett said. “I was just flabbergasted, and I said, ‘That man stopped at our store.’ She said, ‘Mama, they didn’t.’ I said, ‘They did.’ I recognized his mustache, and he was wearing that same cap as was in the picture.”

Angela Kinnett said she knew of the Towns fellow, too, the young local charged with murder, armed robbery and theft by deception.

Towns allegedly lured the Runions to buy the vintage Mustang that Towns, according to an arrest warrant, “did not possess.”

“He’s directly kin to somebody in our family,” Angela Kinnett said. “They used to go to church with us when he was a small kid. ... I’ve never known him to be in any trouble.”

On Wednesday, Angela Kinnett wondered if she and her husband were the last to see the Runions before the Cobb County pair met their killer.

“Whoever did it executed them,” she said. “I can’t even think about it. I don’t want to think about, but I wake up thinking about it.”

Towns grew up on a farm down a long dirt road where his father grew pine trees, soybeans, corn and peanuts.

He has a family of his own -- a wife and a young daughter -- in neighboring Wheeler County. Towns supported them by working construction jobs for a local home builder, said his uncle Buddy Towns.

“He’s a good kid and very smart,” said the uncle, who sometimes hired his nephew to help install carpet and flooring that customers had purchased from Buddy Towns’ business in McRae-Helena.

Buddy Towns said it had been six months or so since he needed his nephew’s help on a job, but he saw the younger Towns’ truck pass his storefront almost daily as he headed to work. He said his nephew remained close to his father, Ronnie Towns Sr., and they often went fishing and hunting together.

Towns’ family helped persuade him to turn himself in to authorities Monday. Buddy Towns said they were stunned he was charged in connection with the Runions’ disappearance.

“It just doesn’t make any sense why this would even go down,” Towns’ uncle said. “It’s hard for his parents. They’re not understanding.”

The missing couple’s friends and family near Atlanta were equally stunned.

“The Bible tells us the Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and he saves those who are crushed in spirit,” said the Rev. Mark Walker, the family’s pastor. “And that’s what we are.”

The couple’s funeral is Saturday, and officials from Telfair County plan to attend.

Steverson, the sheriff, will be among them. He said the couple’s death had left him angry.

“And this community is highly upset that someone here has brought that shame and tarnish to our county,” he said.

“This case has garnered so much attention. I don’t believe there’s one single person that it hasn’t touched. There’s a element in this story that everyone can relate to, if it’s the grandparent angle, the parents, the Craigslist transaction, the good people that always seem to be the victim in these heinous crimes.”

He said a television network in Tokyo emailed him and arranged an interview.

Publicity aside, Steverson, 46, a Telfair native and former police investigator, called the case “a punch in the gut.” There were times in the search for the Runions and in its aftermath where “I’ve had to stop and regain my composure.”

“We found more than just bodies that had been left in the woods,” he said. “We were not only looking for loved ones, but we were looking for visitors, people that were guests in our county, and we feel that we had the responsibility of keeping this couple safe while they were here. And in many ways we feel we may have failed them in that aspect.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. To contact writer Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397.

This story was originally published January 28, 2015 at 8:00 PM with the headline "Slain couple in Craigslist case found ‘lying separately’."