Edwardsville struggles with the murders of three well-known citizens in a year
The stabbing deaths of prominent Edwardsville residents Lois and Michael Ladd last March stunned the college town of 25,000 people, who take pride in their thriving economy, quality schools, safe neighborhoods and civil society.
Now another murder is dominating local conversation, and many can’t help but point out similarities between the Ladd case and Saturday night’s killing of Edwardsville attorney and philanthropist Randy Gori.
“Everyone in town is talking about it,” said Mary Grose, 62, an Anderson Hospital nurse who was eating at Sacred Grounds Cafe this week with her husband, Jeffrey Skoblow, an English professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
“People are shocked,” she said. “It was a horrific crime, very disturbing, and children were involved.”
Grose was referring to police reports that Gori, 47, and two minors were tied up before Gori was stabbed to death in his home at 4586 Mooney Creek Lane, northeast of Edwardsville. Suspect Timothy Banowetz, 28, of Wentzville, Missouri, was later charged with murder, armed robbery, unlawful restraint and theft of Gori’s 2020 Rolls-Royce SUV. Investigators believe the crimes were premeditated.
The news hit close to home for Jenn Courtney, owner of Sacred Grounds, a restaurant and coffee shop that’s frequented by lawyers and employees of nearby Madison County Courthouse. Woods behind her house back up to Gori’s land.
“We had talked to him about buying some of his property to create kind of a buffer zone,” said Courtney, 51, who raises turkeys, chickens, goats and lamas. “But I really didn’t know him.”
Courtney said she spent Saturday afternoon at home before going out to dinner with friends that evening. Police found Gori’s body about 9 p.m. Saturday. Banowetz was taken into custody on Sunday morning in a wooded area about 1,200 feet from the Gori home.
The murder has affected Courtney, who often walks or bikes on local trails, much like it has other Edwardsville residents.
“I’m probably a little more cautious and aware now,” she said. “... My biggest feeling is just sadness. I’m sad for the family. It just seems pretty senseless.”
Prominent victims, isolated homes
Similarities between the Ladd and Gori cases are striking, even if they’re coincidental.
Edwardsville police discovered the bodies of Lois Ladd, 68, and Michael Ladd, 79, on March 18, 2019, in their home at 830 N. Kansas St. The home is isolated and surrounded by woods at the end of a cul-de-sac, which made people wonder how the murderer knew about it.
Today, the same questions are being asked in the Gori case. His house is even more isolated, and investigators have reported no known connection between victim and suspect.
“Everyone is speculating and finding the most romantic and most spectacular explanations they can find,” said Sacred Grounds customer Steve Jellen, 71, of Edwardsville, a retired building contractor.
Like Gori, the Ladds were well-known in the community. Lois was a chiropractor and local volunteer with Edwardsville Rotary Club. Michael, a building contractor, often hired people who needed a hand to get back on their feet, friends said.
Gori donated millions to charity, personally and through The Gori Law Firm, which specializes in litigation related to asbestos exposure.
“We’re still a small town, and these were prominent people,” said longtime Edwardsville resident Norman Nordhauser, 79, a retired SIUE history professor. “I knew Mike Ladd and so did a thousand other people. It’s personal.”
In both the Ladd and Gori cases, local law enforcement called in the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis to conduct investigations. All three victims were stabbed with knives.
Police apprehended Ladd murder suspect Zachary Capers, now 24, on March 17, 2019, the day after it’s believed that Lois and Michael were killed. Banowetz was apprehended on Sunday, the day after Gori’s murder.
Capers was arrested in Worden on an outstanding warrant before police linked him to the double homicide. He was initially charged with trespassing on property owned by a Madison County sheriff’s deputy, obstructing a peace officer by fleeing to avoid arrest and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Both crimes called ‘heinous”
At a news conference after the Ladd murders, Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons called them “brutal and heinous.” At a news conference after the Gori murder, Capt. David Vucich, Major Case Squad commander, made a similar comment.
“In my 22 years in law enforcement, I have seen many gruesome crimes,” he said. “This one rises to the top in its level of heinousness.”
Ladd investigators speculated that Capers, whose driver’s license gave a Collinsville address, had been living on the streets. Gori investigators described Banowetz, a former student at St. Louis College of Pharmacy, as a “transient and nomadic type.”
One big difference is that Banowetz had no police record, while Capers’ lengthy record lists charges ranging from forgery to assault, trespassing to possession of a stolen vehicle, and includes references to possible mental issues. Capers, who pleaded not guilty to the Ladd murders, is awaiting trial in Madison County Jail, where Banowetz also is being held.
Both suspects are represented by Madison County Public Defender John Rekowski.
“There’s still lab tests going on (in the Capers case), and there’s still some evaluations being done by my experts,” Rekowski said Wednesday afternoon. “The case is still moving forward, but you can’t make experts go any faster than they go.
“I’ve only had the (Banowetz) case for two hours, but I can verify that he had an initial appearance before a judge this morning, and I was appointed to represent him.”
Like Rekowski, Gibbons pointed to forensic testing, as well as defense challenges to the prosecution’s testing process and admissibility of evidence, as reasons why the Capers trial has been continued several times.
Gibbons confirmed that prosecutors still consider the Ladd murders “truly random,” and they haven’t found a connection between Capers and the couple. He also noted that a clear motive isn’t required to convict someone of a crime if evidence is strong enough.
Gibbons said he understands why local residents are anxious to get answers after such disturbing crimes occur in their community. He knew Gori and the Ladds personally for many years.
“In most cases, the victims know their assailants, and when that’s not the case, it’s unusual, and it can be difficult for us to wrap our heads around,” Gibbons said.
Last murder in 2006 was domestic
Before the Ladd case, the city’s last killing was part of a 2006 murder-suicide involving Jon and Carol Trevino, according to Edwardsville police Lt. Mike Lybarger. It occurred on Adams Street.
“It was a domestic situation, where a man killed his estranged (wife), and then he shot himself,” Lybarger said.
Jon Trevino, 36, of Shiloh, an Air Force medic, kicked in the back door of his mother-in-law’s home and overturned a dresser blocking the door to a basement room where Carol Trevino, 31, a YMCA employee, was staying, according to an Edwardsville Intelligencer story.
The couple’s 9-year-old son witnessed the murder-suicide.
“After (police detective Brian Barker) arrived, he searched Jon Trevino and found “what appeared to be a suicide note and numerous e-mail notes ... and a greeting card that was hand-written to his son, explaining why he was doing this,’” the Intelligencer reported.
Edwardsville had a crime rate of 44.1 per 100,000 population in 2018, significantly lower than state and national averages, according to City-Data.com. It calculates rates by gathering FBI-reported information on murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts, auto thefts and arson and weighing serious crimes more heavily.
The Edwardsville rate compares to 84.6 per 100,000 population for Troy, 204.5 for Collinsville, 205.6 for O’Fallon, 308 for Belleville, 345.4 for Fairview Heights, 436 for Alton, 585.4 for East St. Louis and 878.9 for St. Louis.
“Edwardsville is a safe community, but like any community its size, you have the potential of something happening,” Lybarger said. “... Our crime tends to be more property- and business-related rather than violent. We get the occasional car burglary or financial crimes like credit-card fraud.”
After the Gori stabbing, some Edwardsville residents took to Facebook, passing on rumors and offering theories to fill in blanks left by police statements and asking why the public hasn’t received more information on the circumstances or motive for the Ladd murders after nearly 10 months.
Jellen defends the decision by investigators and prosecutors to remain tight-lipped.
“It takes a couple of years for some of these cases to go to trial,” he said. “In fact, it can take five years, and they can’t prejudice potential jurors with facts that can be taken out of context.”
“People need information to the extent that they can make sure they’re not in danger,” said Sacred Grounds customer Kathy Mendez, 72, of Edwardsville, an Army and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs retiree. “But I don’t need all the gory details. They’ve given me the big picture. I know enough about what happened.”
Some felt ‘immune’ from violence
Edwardsville mayor Hal Patton declined comment on the Ladd and Gori cases, but the murders have sparked plenty of discussion in restaurants and bars, offices and homes.
Beyond sadness and grief, some local residents are feeling unnerved by it all.
“A lot of people think that we’re immune to some extent, as contrasted with St. Louis, that we’re somehow in a different world here,” Nordhauser said. “And there’s some truth to that. The self-image of the place is low-violence. We think of ourselves as an island of safety, so it makes (a brutal crime) a bit of a shock.”
The murders also have renewed debate about the effect of residential and commercial growth in Edwardsville, including the development of sprawling subdivisions with million-dollar homes.
Dick Spurgeon, 83, of Maryville, a retired SIUE English professor, recalls his colleagues dubbing the area “East County” in the 1980s as it became more of a bedroom community for St. Louis commuters. Last spring, Edwardsville Economic/Community Development Director Walter Williams reported that the city had received permit requests for a record $30.9 million in commercial development.
“My wife said (the Gori murder may have occurred) because Edwardsville has become more prosperous than it was in the 1960s,” Spurgeon said. “There’s more money here now, and she believes that it’s attracting people who need to raise money.”
The 7,350-square-foot Gori home has six bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, according to Zillow, a real-estate website, and one of his hobbies was collecting Ferraris.
Several Sacred Grounds customers emphasized that the Ladd and Gori murders appear unrelated and the fact that they occurred 10 months apart doesn’t mean Edwardsville is a dangerous place.
One woman declined to comment because she didn’t want to perpetuate an atmosphere of fear.
“I’m not necessarily scared about it,” said cafe employee Chris Hanna, 47, of Wood River. “It’s just creepy. It’s more creepy than scary. I used to live in St. Louis, and you expect dangerous things to happen. But now I live here, and you don’t expect it.
“The worst part was the little kids. Who knows what they witnessed or whether they saw their dad killed. They were tied up, and that’s going to stay with them forever. It’s just so sad.”
This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
