Weapons investigation leads to Marion Fredonia hosting festival Aug. 12
News from August 3, 2006 issue
Crittenden County and Illinois authorities found a cache of weapons in an outbuilding in northern Crittenden County Saturday that they say is linked to a weapons investigation in Brookport, Ill.
The investigation began last week when Brookport police were investigating a domestic dispute. Inside the Illinois home, they found just over a half dozen weapons, about 43,000 rounds of ammunition, maps, underwater equipment, bullet proof vest and other material believed to be ingredients for making improvised explosive devices such as a pipe bomb.
In a news release, the Brookport Police Department also said it confiscated a box of video and audio tapes on the subject of communism and a Tennessee law enforcement officer’s badge. Police also said they found photographs of “vital structures,” possibly of dams in the area.
Police from Brookport contacted Crittenden County Sheriff’s Deputy Devin Brewer Saturday night about a tip in the case that involved more weapons located in a metal barn in rural Crittenden County.
Brewer and Constable Eddie Jack Myers accompanied by Illinois officers went to a home on U.S. 60 near the Union County line where they executed a search warrant and found 37 more guns and a small amount of ammunition.
Brewer said the owner of the metal storage building had not been inside it for several days and the deputy believes the owner was unaware that the guns were being kept there. The property owner is a relative of the suspect’s wife, the deputy said.
The suspect in the case was identified this week as Michael Carrigan, 58, of Brookport.
Brewer said the suspect does not appear to have any ties to Crittenden County other than his wife’s relatives. Brewer doesn’t believe the suspect was carrying on any type of illegal arms activity in this county.
“I don’t know if there will be any local charges filed,” Brewer said. “There probably will not be unless ATF decides it’s necessary.”
ATF, Coast Guard and Homeland Security officials were notified of the large number of guns found and the presence of other materials that raised concern for officers. Brewer said Illinois officers told him they had found maps of TVA structures and other material that made the case especially sensitive to area security.
The weapons found in Crittenden County were of various types, including an AR-15, AK-47 and other assault type rifles that can easily be converted to fully automatic weapons. Most, however, were hunting rifles.
No maps or bomb making materials were found here, Brewer said.
The guns were located in the rear of an older model Land Rover parked inside a garage that was separate from the property owner’s house. The guns had been covered with a tarp. Brewer said the Land Rover belonged to the suspect from Illinois who had been storing it here.
Brookport police took all of the weapons back to Illinois, Brewer said.
According to the Brookport Police Department, the suspect was charged with domestic battery and possession of a weapon without having an Illinois Firearms Owner Identification Card. He was released on bond last week prior to the confiscation of the weapons in Illinois and Kentucky. He was charged with other weapons violations earlier this week in Illinois.
Fredonia is gearing up for its 42nd annual Lions Club Summer Festival on Saturday, Aug. 12.
Events begin early in the morning with sporting events and last well into the evening with a pair of concerts.
T-ball, softball, baseball and volleyball tournaments will get things going at Buddy Rogers American Legion Park.
There will be a checkers tournament, pet show, washer pitching, ring toss, football throw and duck pond events for all ages.
“We will also have all kinds of good food including barbecue, hamburgers, hot dogs, pies and cakes,” said Lions Club member Elbert Bennett.
Arts and crafts and vendor booths are available for $15. To rent a booth, call Hannah Brasher at 545-3347.
A used book and glassware sale and silent auction will be part of the festivities. The silent auction will include a variety of merchandise donated by area merchants.
The Lions Club will give away some nice items late in the afternoon, including a motor scooter, hand-mand quilt by Ruth Dooms (a former Fredonia resident) and a quilt rack. Tickets will be available all day for the drawings.
To finish off the festival, Fredonia will host a gospel singing that will include local talent from 5-7 p.m. Then, Fredonia Jamboree, a country band, will cap the evening with a concert from 7 until 9:30 p.m.
“There will be lots of things for the whole family,” Bennett said. “This has gotten to be a major community event. We get lots of help from several people in the area. It’s the only fund raiser we have and all of the money goes back into community for eye-glasses and for other charitable organizations.”
Templeton benefit this week
It’s been five years since a tragic car wreck left Chris Templeton unable to speak and confined to a wheelchair. The accident dramatically altered his life as an active University of Kentucky sophomore as well as the lives of his parents, Mike and Rita Templeton.
After three months in a Lexington hospital and nine months in a rehabilitation center, the Templetons moved their son to Salem Springlake where his response to family and friends slowly began to increase. Since the fall of 2003, Mike and Rita Templeton have cared for their son in their home, where his mother provides daily physical therapy and where her son receives speech therapy three times a week.
On Friday, a benefit singing will help raise money needed to purchase a wheelchair lift for the Templeton’s mini-van. At present, it takes both Mike and Rita Templeton to load their son, now 25, into the van. With one parent on either side of the vehicle, they lift and transfer him every time they leave their home. Beginning at 7 p.m., at Marion Baptist Church’s Family Life Center, Higher Ground will perform, and all money raised will go toward the $6,500 chair.
“It’s really a motorized chair that comes down out of the van, and I will be able to get him in and out by myself, it will make it so much easier to transfer him from his wheelchair to this chair,” Rita said, noting that a handicap accessible van is cost prohibitive.
Initially following the accident, doctors told the family that their son’s condition would never improve.
“At first he was just blank, with no expression in his eyes,” Rita explains. But he’s continued to make small gains – the first coming when he watched himself in a football highlight video his sisters had had prepared for him for his 1999 graduation from CCHS.
“The first time was in the Lexington rehab, we would sit him up and put the video on and every time he would see himself get hit he would grunt and jerk, but at that time that was the only noticeable reaction,” Rita says.
“Today he is totally there, his brain won’t tell his arms to move right or his mouth to talk, but he can say a few words – he can say ‘I love you,’ he can say ‘Hunter’ and ‘Molly,’ his niece and nephew, and they make him laugh.”
Rita says her son communicates by blinking his eyes once for yes and twice for no, gives thumbs up when he finds something he wants to watch while Rita flips through the television channels and laughs at comedies.
Gradually he has made slight improvement, she said, most noticeably after receiving visitors.
“After some of his friends have come by to see him, he works so hard for about a week, it really contributes to his well-being.
“Some come by, some of his college friends call to check on him, but I just don’t want people to forget him,” she said.
Deeply religious, Rita Templeton believes that one day her son will be healed.
“The Lord is going to heel Chris,” she said. “At first I was afraid the Lord’s will would be done in Chris’ life and I was afraid it wasn’t what I wanted. It may be when the Lord takes him home when he heals him completely, but I know the Lord has plans for him to have a future.”
She finds comfort in Jeremiah 29:11, which says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
Last week the family took Templeton to Dayton, Ohio to be evaluated on an eye gaze machine that is basically a computer screen attached to his wheelchair which will allow him to navigate with his eyes to various categories, such as music, movies, etc., and will increase his ability to communicate.
“He did really well, we’re going back to be evaluated again this fall, so it’s exciting that he will be able to do a few things with us. There are a lot of things out there that are very exciting, you just have to get out there and find them.”