McRAE, Ga. (AP) – Elrey “Bud” Runion and his wife, June, took their charitable efforts all over the South: from storm-damaged Alabama towns and impoverished pockets of West Virginia to a donation center run from their backyard in suburban Atlanta.
“He said, ‘You can’t take money with you when you’re gone,” said the couple’s daughter, Brittany Patterson. “You might as well spend and enjoy it.”
This week, the couple’s bodies were found, each shot in the head, in a small farming town in South Georgia. Bud Runion, 69, had driven nearly three hours from his Marietta home seeking to buy a piece of his youth, a replica of the 1966 Ford Mustang convertible he bought after returning from the Vietnam War decades ago.
A potential seller responding to his Craigslist ad drew him to McRae on Thursday. On Monday, authorities found the couple’s SUV, with their bodies nearby.
Ronnie Adrian “Jay” Towns, 28, of McRae, was charged Tuesday with malice murder and armed robbery. A judge denied bond for Towns in his first, brief court appearance. Asked whether he understood what he had been charged with, Towns replied: “I understand.” His attorney, public defender Ashley McLaughlin, declined to comment afterward.