In October of last year, a man’s decomposing body was found in a woman’s storage unit in Maquon, a village in Illinois.

Police arrested Marcy Oglesby, 50, a Maquon resident, shortly after they discovered a body hidden in her storage unit, and initially charged her with concealment of a death. She was not initially charged with the man’s murder.

The Knox County District Attorney’s Office added other charges in February. Oglesby was accused of killing former Maquon police chief Richard Young and then storing his body in a storage unit. 

Judge Andrew Doyle dropped most of the additional charges during a motion hearing on Thursday, March 16.

The February dropped charges included murder, or a strong likelihood to injure or kill, aggravated battery through ingesting a toxic substance, attempted murder, and concealing a homicidal death.

Judge Doyle ruled to retain charges of concealing a death and forgery.
The woman’s attorney had argued that the murder charges would deny his client a fair trial. Knox County State’s Attorney Jeremy Karlin said they would appeal Judge Doyle’s decision. 

Knox County deputies were called to the Maquon storage unit on October 7, 2022, after complaints of a foul smell coming from one of the units.

When questioned, Oglesby at first lied to the police and told them the foul smell was from a possum that had died in the unit. Police searched the unit and found a large storage box, but Oglesby refused to open it.

After a while, Oglesby admitted to the cops that the box had a human body inside. Police arrested her and charged her with concealing a death.

In March, the man’s identity was finally confirmed as Richard R. Young, 71, the former Maquon police chief.

It is still unclear how Young died, but a toxicology report showed that he died with high levels of a toxic chemical found in eye drops.

A Knox County Sheriff’s Department detective testified last month that the suspect and the victim had been in a relationship.

Oglesby’s pretrial hearing will be on April 3.