On November 18, 1987, 29-year-old Russell Keith Dardeen did not show for his shift at the Rend Lake water-treatment plant. Deputies entering the family’s beige-and-white trailer outside Ina, Illinois, found his 30-year-old pregnant wife, Ruby Elaine Dardeen, their 2-year-old son Peter, and the newborn daughter Elaine had delivered during the assault, each bludgeoned with a baseball bat that Keith had given Peter earlier that year. Initially considered a suspect after his car and body were missing, Russell’s corpse was found the next day in a nearby wheat field; he had been shot three times and sexually mutilated, and his blood-spattered Plymouth was located outside the Benton police station.

The home showed no forced entry and valuables remained, suggesting robbery was not the motive. Elaine had been bound with duct tape, the three beaten bodies were cleaned up and tucked into bed, and the scene’s brutality and staging suggested knowledge of the family’s routines. Investigators followed more than 1,000 leads and sought outside assistance but could not establish a clear motive. In 2000, itinerant killer Tommy Lynn Sells claimed responsibility with shifting, inaccurate details; authorities did not file charges and close associates remain skeptical.

The quadruple homicide remains officially unsolved and no arrests have been announced. Can anyone who knew the Dardeen family or who was in the Ina area in November 1987 add information that might help reopen lines of inquiry?