Hell and Gone Murder Line: Dardeen Family Murders

On November 18, 1987 29-year-old Russell Dardeen, who went by his middle name Keith, did not show up to his 7 a.m. shift at a local water plant.

This was very unlike Keith, who lived in a mobile home in the tiny town of Ina, Illinois. The area back then had a population of just 460. He lived with his family: his wife 30-year-old Ruby Elaine, who also went by her middle name, and their 3-year-old son, Peter.

Elaine was seven months pregnant. They were excited about the new baby, due January 11, and already had potential names picked out: If the baby was a girl they were going to name her Casey, if it was a boy, he would be Ian.

Keith’s shift supervisor went to the mobile home and knocked on the door, but no one answered. So then he called Keith’s parents, Russell and Joanne Dardeen. Neither of them had heard from Keith or anyone else in the family.

Both Russell and Joanne spoke with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s office, and they agreed to do a welfare check.

An officer knocked on the front door. No answer. So they went around to the back. The door was unlocked. When police entered the trailer, they found three dead bodies in the main bedroom in the same bed.

There was blood everywhere.The victims had been beaten to death. It was Elaine and her son Peter, and police later said that during the prolonged attack the killer beat Elaine so severely that she went into labor and gave birth to her daughter, and then the killer, or killers, beat the baby to death.

Then they neatly wrapped Elaine, her baby and Peter in the bedding and tucked them into their waterbed. And Keith was nowhere to be found.

Even now, 38 years later, people in Ina, Illinois and law enforcement who worked this case describe it as the most horrific murder that anyone has ever seen.

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