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| CLTV Host Garrard McClendon with his parents, Ruby and Milton. McClendon's parents were found shot dead in a Calumet City forest preserve earlier this week. Courtesy: WGN-TV |
Posted: Wednesday, 21 October 2009 2:17PM
CLTV Host's Murdered Parents' Car Found
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CHICAGO (CBS) ― Police have found the car belonging to the parents of CLTV television host Garrard McClendon, who were found murdered in a Calumet City forest preserve earlier this week.
The car belonged to Milton and Ruby McClendon. They were the parents of CLTV host Gerard McClendon. Family members confirmed that their bodies were found dead in the Wentworth Woods forest preserve on Monday afternoon.
A passing motorist reported the car on the Dan Ryan Expressway near the Garfield exit Wednesday around 1:50 a.m. She recognized it from news reports about the couple's murder. She also said she saw two men leaving the area, but by the time police arrived, those men were gone.
State Police were not inundated with calls reporting pedestrians on the expressway -- which often happens in bona fide cases -- and there is no definite connection between the two men and the vehicle found in the shoulder of the express lanes, Illinois State Police District Chicago Trooper Ivan Bukaczyk said. As a result, State Police did not establish a perimeter or initiate an extensive search.
The driver or the occupants of the car found were not in custody as of 4 a.m., Bukaczyk said.
Police have also spent time gathering evidence at the McClendons' Hammond home, where they were killed.
Hammond Police Lt. Richard Hoyda said police executed a search warrant at the McClendons' home in the 1000 block of Field Street in Hammond on Tuesday. He said the couple's 1997 green Cadillac Eldorado with Indiana plates 365ZTN was taken in the incident.
Hoyda said it is unclear how the couple got to the forest preserve, and he wouldn't comment on whether there were any signs of a break-in at the home.
Their son Garrard, who hosts "Garrard McClendon Live" six days a week on CLTV, was almost too hurt for words.
Relatives and friends are also devastated.
"This is an amazing tragedy because of the fact the McClendons were a couple that were born in this area," said family friend Jeff Morrow. This community has lost two anchors and it has lost two historians about the city. They could tell you everything about Hammond."
Milton and Ruby McClendon, 78 and 76, respectively, were both shot to death, Tuesday autopsies determined. Both deaths have been ruled homicides.
Hammond City Councilman Anthony Higgs planned to announce a reward for information leading to arrests in the McClendons' murder.
CBS 2's Don Schwenneker, CBS 2's Pamela Jones and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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