On April 19th, the Tribune reported:

Four years ago, Illinois State Police Maj. Edie Casella was in favor of reopening the case of slain newlyweds Karen and Dyke Rhoads in Downstate Paris.

At the time, Casella supervised a lieutenant who believed the two men in jail for the crime might be innocent. The lieutenant had identified a different potential suspect, an Edgar County businessman who once employed Karen Rhoads.

But at a meeting in the State Police Armory in Springfield in April 2001, Casella was told by Lt. Col. Diane Carper that the case would remain closed, Casella said Monday. […]

“You are not going to be able to reopen the Rhoads case,” Casella recalled Carper saying at the Armory meeting. “It’s too politically sensitive and it came from higher up than me.”

The “person of interest” was allegedly a major contributor to George Ryan, which is supposedly why the officer was told to back off.

Trib columnist Eric Zorn, by the way, has been writing about the case for years.

Last week, the “person of interest” came forward. From the Paris Beacon:

“Enough is enough,” Bob Morgan finally expressed this week.The publicity-shy entrepreneur says he’s tired of hearing false accusations aimed at him.

“In 1986 we expected anyone connected with the girl who worked for us (the late Karen Rhoads) to be looked at.”

A Paris resident and entrepreneur for over 30 years, Morgan admits it was understandable to be included in the investigation when the young couple Dyke and Karen Rhoads were found murdered in their burning apartment on West Court street.

Now, 19 years later, with two court hearings underway referring to the case, Morgan says “enough is enough.”

A train of accusations and innuendos have arisen from the hearing underway in Edgar County Circuit Court in which Herbert Whitlock seeks a new trial on his murder conviction, and more explicitly during a federal court civil trial in Urbana involving the Illinois State Police.

These allegations were attached to a “person of interest” according to a former state police investigator. His attorneys say they range from “narcotics trafficking, arson, money laundering, to extortion and racketeering….and possibly five homicides.”

And that “person of interest” was identified in court as Bob Morgan.

Before he came forward, Morgan hired Dan Curry, a public relations person who worked for former Attorney General Jim Ryan and former US Senator Peter Fitzgerald.

Curry talked about his involvement with Morgan in Illini Pundit’s comments section:

…a person I believe to be innocent is being smeared by allegations. He deserves a chance to defend himself from shadowy attacks…

Morgan and his company contributed about $27,000 to George Ryan’s campaign. Morgan also gave $2,500 to Jim Ryan’s committee.

Nothing in the Trib yet, but I imagine we’ll see something soon.