Police

The new police chief for the Town of Normal is the current assistant chief, Steve Petrilli.

In 2018, there were 11 homicides in Bloomington-Normal. Guilty verdicts have now been secured in all those cases.

A central Illinois man has pleaded guilty in federal court to robbing banks and stores across a five-county region in April 2021, including in Peoria, Livingston, Ford, Vermillion, and Sangamon counties.

Jody May retired early from the McLean County sheriff's office. Across the country, cops are retiring and resigning at an alarming rate.

As the investigation into the death of Illinois University University graduate student Jelani Day goes on, the time it took to find and identify the body looms larger, as potential evidence external to the body may have washed away while he was in the Illinois River.

McLean County Sheriff Jon Sandage said the body was recovered Tuesday on the east side of the lake near Thorn Apple Lane. Sandage said there is no indication at this point of foul play.

The Bloomington Fire Department said Wednesday the apartment fire at 603 W. Market St. that killed a 62-year-old man Monday night involves suspicious circumstances. Bloomington police have joined the investigation as has the State Fire Marshal's office.

Lawyers for Jamie Snow and the state have reached an agreement on a portion of the police records the defense is entitled to view in their efforts to exonerate Snow of the 1991 murder of a Bloomington gas station attendant.

The U.S. Marshal for central Illinois could continue in that job under the Biden administration.

McLean County sheriff's deputies have been working without a contract for six months. A federal mediator has intervened in their labor dispute with the county.