Landin Lee Bodine, an 18-year-old male from Mt. Zion in the Decatur, Illinois, area, was remembered by those closest to him as a hardworking student who gravitated toward simple comforts and familiar places. He spent his days balancing school with work, and his free time with the kinds of routines that made a small-town life feel big—football and track, music and car stereos, late-night Taco Bell runs, and quiet hangouts by the water at Sportsman Park.
That park—near Lake Decatur—became the setting of the violence that ended his life on Friday, December 5, 2025. Police were dispatched to Sportsman Park on East Lost Bridge Road in the late afternoon after reports of a gunshot victim. When officers arrived, they found Landin suffering from at least one gunshot wound. He was rushed to Decatur Memorial Hospital, but he did not survive. The Macon County coroner identified him as the victim soon after, and the park that had been part of his everyday world turned into a taped-off crime scene.
In the days that followed, investigators pieced together a timeline from witness accounts and digital messages. According to a sworn statement described in court coverage, a teenage boy who was at the scene told police he and Landin arrived at the park first, and that Joshua J. Gregg later joined them, driving separately. The three were by the lake, and later Landin and the witness got back into Landin’s vehicle while Gregg stood outside the driver’s side door talking with him. A single gunshot rang out. The witness said Gregg opened the driver’s door and Landin fell from the vehicle, and that Gregg then attempted to help—performing chest compressions and applying pressure to the wound—before the situation splintered into panic and confusion.
Investigators say the calm, after-the-fact story did not stop there. The same sworn account described Gregg allegedly urging the witness to mislead officers and give a false name. As Landin’s family gathered at the hospital, police said Landin’s brother reached out to Gregg on Snapchat, and Gregg’s replies included pleas not to tell anyone what had happened, along with messages suggesting the shooting was not intentional.
An arrest followed quickly. Police tracked Gregg to Shelbyville, Illinois, where he was taken into custody. Officers located a handgun in his vehicle, and Gregg reportedly acknowledged it was the firearm involved. In the version of events attributed to Gregg in the sworn statement, he told police he had been showing Landin ammunition when he slipped on ice; as the gun fell, he caught it and it discharged. Authorities also noted that Gregg did not have a valid FOID card on file. He was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and later court reporting described multiple felony counts tied to the shooting, including reckless discharge of a firearm and an additional involuntary manslaughter count characterized in charging language as involving a family member.
By mid-December, the case moved deeper into the court system. Gregg appeared in Macon County court, entered a not guilty plea, and remained detained after the court found continued custody was necessary based on concerns about public safety and the risk of flight. A judge set deadlines for pretrial motions and scheduled a pretrial hearing for February 6, 2026. As the legal process began its slow march forward, Landin’s loved ones faced a different kind of time—measured in memorial dates and empty routines. A visitation and prayer service were planned in Decatur, and community support gathered around the family through public tributes and a memorial fund bearing a phrase that began to follow his name everywhere: Long Live Landin.
