On April 24, 2025, at about 5:00 AM, 21-year-old Chase Rhodes of Pekin, Illinois, was shot and killed in the basement of a home on the 11000 block of Illinois Route 29 in South Pekin. Rhodes and his best friend Dawson Reese, also 21, were both found dead in the basement. A third friend, David Reese, was sleeping on a living room couch and was awakened by gunfire and someone yelling They’re dead! They’re dead! He disarmed the suspect, 21-year-old Memphis S. Rue, held him at gunpoint in the kitchen until Tazewell County sheriff’s deputies arrived, and deputies found the two victims in the basement.

Tazewell County State’s Attorney Kevin Johnson filed two counts of first-degree murder against Memphis Rue and petitioned to detain him as a real and present threat to the community. Rue was in custody at the Tazewell County Jail and a mental fitness evaluation was ordered; a preliminary hearing was scheduled for May 22. Chase Rhodes, born December 19, 2003, graduated Pekin Community High School in 2022, played on the football team, and had been working at Alto in Pekin for five months after earlier employment at BTD Manufacturing.

If anyone knew Chase, Dawson, or the circumstances that led to that morning in South Pekin, please share what you know with investigators.