Theories swirling once again after vehicle found in 1976 Illinois cold case

Freeport to Stockton to Pecatonica to just outside Seward.

For 48 years, that was all anyone knew about where Everett Hawley and Clarence Owens had gone on Feb. 19, 1976, before the two men up and vanished.

That changed a week ago, when investigators learned that some time after Hawley and Owens left the Seward area in Hawley's gold 1966 Chevrolet Impala, the car somehow found its way to the bottom of the Pecatonica River, where it was recovered earlier this month along with yet to be identified skeletal remains.

The buzz around Pecatonica and beyond is now centered on how the car ended up in the river and whether the remains belong to Owens, 65 and Hawley, 72, neither of whom have been seen since that winter day nearly a half century ago.

As investigators attempt to identify the remains, theories about what happened to the two men continue to swirl. Were Owens and Hawley killed over a real estate deal? Were they victims of a robbery-homicide? Did the Impala accidentally leave the road and plunge into the river?

Well-known, well-liked men

The theory that Owens and Hawley, who were partners in a real estate business that specialized in farm property, were killed over a real estate deal was largely put to rest early in the investigation, just as the possibility that they disappeared willingly had been disregarded.

Those close to the men told police that neither Owens or Hawley would have abandoned their families. It was established early on that while shrewd businessmen, they were well-known and well-liked in the farming community between Freeport and Pecatonica.

That prompted investigators to focus more on their last confirmed stop on Feb. 19 — a farm auction just south of Seward.

More: Could this be the end of one of the Rockford area's most puzzling mysteries?

Owens left his Freeport home in his Impala and picked up Hawley at around 10 a.m. in Stockton. The pair attended a political rally at the American Legion in Pecatonica then walked across the street to Rocky's Cafe.

'Seems really strange'

Lifelong Pecatonica resident Marj Herbig knew Owens and was in the cafe when he and Hawley came in after the rally for pie and coffee. She'd seen them in Rocky's before but this day was different. Since Owens just had his Impala painted gold a few days before, he was eager to show it off.

"He was bragging about the paint job to everybody," said Herbig, 90. "And everybody in there knew him."

From the restaurant, Owens and Hawley stopped to show Owens' son the car, but he wasn't home. They arrived at the auction at around 2:30 p.m., and stayed for 30 minutes. That's the last anyone saw of them.

What locals also knew about Owens and Hawley is that as regulars at farm auctions, they carried significant amounts of cash. That has led some to wonder if they were robbed and killed by someone who knew them from the circuit.

"It seems really strange that they left Rocky's restaurant, gone to the auction and then came back to Pecatonica and the car ends up in the river," Herbig said.

Foul play

Pecatonica resident Linda Stedman said she has always suspected foul play in the case.

"Two adult men just don't disappear," Stedman said.

Stedman said Owens and Hawley could have been killed over money and that it wouldn't have been difficult to put the their car in the river with their bodies inside, assuming the skeletal remains belong to the missing men.

"Down by where the boats go in," she said, referring to Sumner Park, just west of where the Impala was recovered in approximately 10 feet of water.

Robbery-homicide

Police worked the robbery-homicide theory hard, especially after learning a Rockford man named William Exline robbed a couple at gunpoint at a Green County, Wisconsin farm auction in May 1976 and made off with more than $80,000.

Investigators also looked at a man who killed a Pecatonica couple, also in 1976. Both cases had Pecatonica residents on edge but showed no connection to Owens and Hawley.

"During that time, you can imagine what the citizens of Pecatonica were thinking," said former Winnebago County Sheriff Dick Meyers, who was a detective with Winnebago County in 1976. "Owens and Hawley go missing in February. Then you go a few months later and here's this brutal murder."

William Exline was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the auction robbery.

He and his wife went on to raise a family before he died in 1999. His wife died in 2011. The suspect in the double homicide was later convicted and died in prison.

More: Car pulled from Illinois river could help solve cold case. Here's what we know

Wrong turn

The Winnebago County Coroner's Office is currently analyzing the skeletal remains found in the car to determine whether they belong to Owens and Hawley. Although it may be difficult, if not impossible, to determine forensically if the victims drowned, signs of injury on the bones could shed light on how they died and how the car wound up in the river, including the possibility that it was an accident.

Those who know Pecatonica say if the Impala slid off an icy road into the river close to where it was found on March 11, it would have left tire tracks and potential debris, indicating that a crash had occurred. Because no such evidence has ever been found, some people aren't buying it.

"I can't imagine it," Herbig said. "Because (Owens and Hawley) knew the town very well. They wouldn't have driven in there."

Meyers remembers searching areas between Pecatonica and Seward and coming up empty.

"We thought maybe they missed a road or something and maybe went into the water," he said. "So that theory has always been there."

Medical emergency

Local historian and author Kathi Kresol has been investigating the case for nearly 20 years.

Kresol said an early theory was that one or both men suffered a medical emergency and crashed, leaving them both to drown.

"That is why they had planes up on the air looking," Kresol said. "But after a couple of days of searching, the theory changed."

A member of the Winnebago County Sheriff's Office who was a diver even searched Lake Summerset north of Durand. He also searched the area with a metal detector but found nothing.

"The chances of them just sliding into the river and drowning — I don't know," Stedman said. "To me it feels like they were murdered. My gut has told me that from the beginning."

Jim Hagerty writes news stories for the Rockford Register Star. Email him at jhagerty@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Vehicle causes theories to swirl once again in Rockford cold case