Kyle McMurtrey, a 34-year-old White male from Washington, Illinois, was found dead on the morning of June 17, 2020, in a drainage ditch behind Washington Plaza, a shopping center formerly known as Sunnyland Plaza. Police received a report of a possible body at approximately 9:30 a.m. Officers responded to the area behind the plaza, near the AMC Classic Sunnyland 10 theater, where they discovered McMurtrey.
Tazewell County Coroner Charles Hanley pronounced him dead at approximately 10:15 a.m.
McMurtrey reportedly lived with his grandfather on Argo Street in Washington and did not have a driver’s license, causing him to travel through the community primarily on foot. He had worked at McMahon’s Restaurant in Washington Plaza, placing him in familiar surroundings near the location where his body was found. He was reportedly last seen alive walking along Washington Road on June 17, although investigators did not publicly provide a complete account of his final movements or identify the person who last saw him.
Authorities initially withheld both the cause and manner of McMurtrey’s death while the Washington Police Department, Illinois State Police, Tazewell County Coroner’s Office and Tazewell County State’s Attorney’s Office investigated. On June 23, Washington Police Chief Mike McCoy announced that the death was being treated as a homicide. Later accounts reported that McMurtrey had suffered blunt-force trauma to the back of his head, although police were careful not to disclose many details about the injuries or the evidence recovered from the scene.
The killing was particularly alarming in Washington because the city had not experienced a violent homicide in several years. McCoy nevertheless told the public that investigators believed the death was an isolated incident rather than a random attack posing a continuing threat to the community. He indicated that McMurtrey may have known the person or people responsible.
During the early investigation, police said they were speaking with multiple persons of interest and following available leads. Detectives collected and reviewed surveillance recordings from businesses and cameras near Washington Plaza in an effort to reconstruct McMurtrey’s movements and determine who had been in the area before his body was discovered. Investigators also sought information about where he had been, who he had spoken with and whom he may have encountered during the hours preceding his death.
Despite the identification of persons of interest, authorities did not publicly name a suspect or announce that probable cause had been established against anyone. A separate homicide occurred in Washington later that same month, but police stated that no connection between the two deaths had been established. An arrest made in that second case was unrelated to McMurtrey’s killing.
No arrest, criminal charge, trial or conviction has been publicly reported in connection with McMurtrey’s death. More than a year after the killing, his relatives were still seeking answers, and available reports continued to describe the case as unsolved. Investigators have not publicly explained why McMurtrey was attacked, whether he was killed in the drainage area or moved there afterward, what weapon or object caused his injuries, or whether one or several people participated. The limited information released by police suggests that potentially important details have been withheld to protect the integrity of the investigation and to help detectives evaluate information provided by witnesses or possible suspects.
