The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says it has collected some new evidence related to its investigation into the homicides of an East Cobb married couple in south Georgia in 2015.
The GBI said Monday that a citizen found a .22 caliber rifle while fishing in Horse Creek near McRae, Ga., in Telfair County, on April 14.
The same citizen two days later went to the same location, and using a magnetic device, found a bag and driver’s licenses and credit cards belonging to Bud and June Runion, as well as a cell phone thought to belong to them, according to the GBI.
The GBI said its agents and the Telfair County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at a home on two separate occasions after that last week, adding that investigators recovered unspecified further evidence that’s being sent to the state crime lab for further analysis.
The GBI didn’t identify who lived in the home and didn’t indicate in its release on Monday if the rifle could be the murder weapon.
A suspect arrested shortly after the murders, Ronnie Adrian Towns, is scheduled to go on trial for the killings in August.
The Runions, who lived off Holly Springs Road, were in their 60s when they ventured to Telfair County in January 2015 to buy a 1966 Ford Mustang. Bud Runion had posted an interest in making such a purchase on Craigslist.
The Runions were reported missing by their daughters the following day, and four days later their bodies were found on a rural road, not far from where their vehicle was spotted in a pond near McRae, 75 miles south of Macon.
Authorities said the Runions had been robbed and shot in the head, but a murder weapon had not been found. Towns, then 28, turned himself in and was charged with murder and armed robbery.
But his murder indictment was overturned in 2019 by the Georgia Supreme Court, upholding a lower court ruling of improper jury selection.
Towns was re-indicted in 2020.
The Runions were married for 38 years. According to their obituaries, in 1991 the Runions founded Forever Greatful Ministries, which helps families in need in the Marietta area. Bud Runion was retired from AT & T and June Runion was a preschool teacher at Johnson Ferry Christian Academy.
They were longtime members of Mt. Paran Church of God North on Allgood Road.
Related:
- Ex-officer indicted for shooting death in NE Cobb car chase
- Student arrested after stabbing at Sprayberry HS
- Man gets life for killing friend at Delk Road apartments
- Homicide suspect in Windy Hill Road stabbing surrenders
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