The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Authorities looking for man who lived in duplex next to 72-year-old.
-by David Grimes, for The Quill
MONMOUTH - Yellow police tape flapped in the wind Monday at 805 and 805 1/2 N. 10th St. Neatly trimmed yards and warbling songbirds made the crime seem even more out of place.
City police discovered the body of Betty L. Loomis, 72, in her bedroom Sunday night, but the circumstances surrounding her death remain a mystery.
Police are trying to locate a former neighbor, Paul E. Sanders, 38. The two lived side by side in a duplex, briefly, earlier this year; Loomis at 805, Sanders at 805 1/2.
Warren County States Attorney Albert "Chip" Algren said in a statement Monday that Loomis was murdered sometime after 9 p.m. Saturday and that her 1998 Honda Accord was missing.
An accompanying CrimeStoppers release stated local and state authorities were attempting to locate Sanders.
An autopsy was performed Monday in Peoria, but Monmouth police and Algren's office said no further details on Loomis' death would be released until this morning.
"She was always dressed neatly, but at the same time was never afraid to get her hands dirty in order to get things done," remembered Marilyn Vandeveer, whose daughter worked with Loomis at the Warren County Library in Monmouth.
Loomis was in her 30th year as an assistant at the library.
Another neighbor, Billy Lantu, said Sanders lived in the duplex for only two or three weeks.
"He moved in there in January or February," Lantu said.
"But he didn't stay long. He's probably been gone two months now."
Lantu said he thought Sanders may have moved into the duplex with the promise of paying the landlord later. He said the man was known for taking taxi rides in town without paying the tab.
Lantu also said Sanders frequently knocked at his door late at night, asking for a ride to Galesburg, a request Lantu never honored.
"I'd tell him it was too late, I was going to bed," Lantu recalled.
Lantu said he went to bed as usual around 10 p.m. Saturday and didn't hear anything unusual that day, but wondered what was up Sunday when police officers showed up at the duplex Sunday afternoon.
He first suspected they were there to have an in-law's stalled vehicle towed.
"A couple of (Loomis') friends had been by earlier," Lantu said.
"They said she never showed up for a concert at the (Monmouth) college at 2 o'clock and that wasn't like her."
Police checked on Loomis and found her body.
The quiet neighborhood consists primarily of retirees and teachers. Lantu's family is one of only two in the neighborhood.
The duplex has, for the most part, been home for college students, Lantu said.
A sign located at the corner of North 10th and East Euclid Avenue, three blocks south of where Loomis lived, identifies the community as a Neighborhood Watch area.
"I've lived here for 15 years," Lantu said.
"I've yet to hear anything about the program."