This was the scene at the corner of Adams and Chestnut streets in Olney on the afternoon of Saturday, March 15, when police responded to the report of a body in a bedroom.
RICHLAND CO.— Authorities in the city of Olney, Richland County and with the Illinois State Police were keeping characteristically mum about the death of local man Joseph Galyean, 33, whose body was found at his residence on South Adams Street Saturday, March 15, but officials have confirmed that the situation is under ongoing investigation.
As of press time of this issue (March 17), there has been no official word on cause of death of Galyean; however, the Richland County coroner’s office advised Disclosure that an autopsy, conducted Sunday morning March 16, had an ‘inconclusive’ outcome pending completion of the investigation by city and state authorities, and could not state whether Galyean’s death was attributable to an accident, homicide, or suicide.
However, it’s the “ongoing investigation” that has once again brought scrutiny upon the city of Olney, which for the past ten years or so has an abysmal track record for solving significant crime involving death within the city limits.
The city police have been in charge of at least two unsolved or unresolved deaths, those of Jamiee Rupe in 2004 and Ed Hataway in 2012. And new city police chief Kevin Paddock isn’t doing his department any favors by issuing answers to direct questions with “I don’t know” when asked first if citizens of Olney have reason to fear for their safety in regards the situation with Galyean’s death; and secondly, which agency, the city of Olney or ISP, is the lead agency in charge of the investigation.
Relying on citizens’ reports
Because of the death being discovered over the weekend, authorities refused to answer questions until business hours on that Monday, so staff had to rely on people surrounding Galyean and his roommate at the house on the corner of Adams and Chestnut streets in order to learn just what had happened.
According to numerous sources who will not be named at this point in time, the death of Galyean, a drug felon in Richland County, was discovered late that Saturday morning by John D. Worlow, 68, who rented the house with Galyean.
Worlow told police that he hadn’t seen Galyean for several days, and that the younger man was always “coming and going” from the residence, so there was nothing unusual about his absence. Worlow himself, he told police, was often coming and going from the residence as well, so the two rarely kept tabs on each other’s whereabouts.
Worlow had told friends that on Tuesday morning, however, he had “cleaned up a bloody mess” in the kitchen of the residence, thinking that Galyean, who had some skin problems attributed to an ongoing condition, might have had some kind of eruption on some part of his body that had caused him to bleed.
Worlow was absent from the house for a couple of days after that, and went with a friend back to the house two days later. At that time (Thursday), both Worlow and his friend reported that they noticed an “awful smell” in the house but couldn’t pinpoint it.
Worlow returned to the house Saturday and the smell was worse…so he attempted to take apart the doorknob to Galyean’s room, the only room he hadn’t inspected for the smell, to see what was going on. When he was unsuccessful, he enlisted the aid of a young friend, whose strength enabled the young man to kick the door in.
There, in Galyean’s bedroom, the two saw Galyean lying in “lots of blood.”
A description of Galyean’s condition had it that “his head was split wide open.”
Joe Galyean
Both shook up
With both of them understandably shaken, Worlow went to the police department to report the situation, initially stating that he hadn’t been certain what he’d beheld, and for all he knew, it could have been a paintball instead of blood, but it appeared Galyean was dead.
The residence was immediately cordoned off and Worlow was interviewed. As well, the young friend and his mother were interviewed, and other interviews were conducted. No one, however, was taken into custody, and the autopsy was planned for Sunday morning at 9 a.m.
Other friends speak out
Because of the lack of information being disseminated on the part of law enforcement and other authorities, Disclosure interviewed many of Galyean’s acquaintances.
One told Disclosure that the last time Worlow had seen Galyean alive was Tuesday morning early, when Worlow had taken Galyean to a probation/public service appointment. The public service portion of the sentence Galyean had recently been issued was rained out on that day, so Worlow took Galyean back to the house and left him there, going on his way and later coming home to find the blood in the kitchen, which he subsequently cleaned up.
But an acquaintance of Galyean’s said that on that night before (Monday, March 10), Galyean had gotten in touch with her, wanting to use her phone to call his daughter in Oklahoma. Apparently, Galyean had only just discovered that he HAD a daughter in Oklahoma; she is 14, and he had made contact with her on Facebook.
But Galyean, for whatever reason, was raging around on that Monday night, according to what the acquaintance said, and had in his fit destroyed his phone. He was needing another phone in order to re-establish contact with the girl.
The friend would not let Galyean use her phone for this matter, and, she said, that was the last time she heard from him.
The acquaintance advised that it was her belief that at that point in time, Galyean appeared to be “very suicidal.”
Illinois State Police investigators and Olney City police are shown outside the residence at Adams and Chestnut, where Joe Galyean was found dead.
Problems with police
Suicide as a cause of death, however, was not something Disclosure could confirm on deadline.
In an attempt to learn whether the general public was at risk if there were a murderer in the area, Disclosure attempted to contact all agencies involved, to no avail.
A phone call to Paddock Sunday night revealed that he “didn’t know” the answers to the questions posed, which are very basic questions and were not asking release of details of the crime scene, nor any alleged crime (all unattended deaths in Illinois are treated as crime scenes until proven otherwise.)
Attempts to view jail logs at the Richland County Detention Center were also unsuccessful on Sunday; jail logs are usually available for inspection, but that Sunday, they were not, raising suspicion that someone was being held.
On Monday morning, Sheriff Andy Hires confirmed to Disclosure that no one was being held in connection with Galyean’s death.
Calls to Illinois State Police were unreturned as of press time, and Paddock had said early Monday morning that a press release would come later in the day, which release was not incorporated into this article as Disclosure was already late to press in order to produce what material was being learned at that time.
Any changes, therefore, in information will come at www.disclosurenewsonline.com, or in subsequent print issues.
Olney never solved Rupe’s death in 2004 and her body was cremated.
Hataway’s death in 2012 is still under investigation by ISP and OPD, and no arrests have been made.