Member-only story
Fear Thy Neighbor: The Brutal Slaying of Karla Brown
The Girl Next Door
When twenty-two-year-old Karla Brown and her fiancé Mark moved into the little rambler on Acton Avenue in Wood River, Illinois, on June 20, 1978, they thought they were living the American dream. They didn’t know that their world would soon be shattered by an act of violence courtesy of a menace that had been hiding in plain sight.
After Mark left for work the next morning, Karla, who had taken the day off, busied herself unpacking and organizing their belongings. At around one o’clock that afternoon, she received a call from a friend wondering if she wanted to get together later in the evening. As they were ironing out their plans, she heard someone pounding on the front door. After saying a hasty goodbye, Karla went to answer the persistent knocking. What happened after that is the stuff of nightmares.
A Horrific Find
At around 5:30, Mark returned home with a friend who had volunteered to help carry in the heavy furniture that was still waiting on the truck. Before getting started, he had gone inside to let Karla know they were there. Unable to find her, he decided to check the basement.
To his horror, he found his girlfriend of five years kneeling on the concrete floor in the utility room, her head submerged in a bucket of water…
