Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Thursday, September 20, 2012
(BLOOMINGTON) - When murderer Robert Evan Lee gets released from prison today, he won’t be staying at Bloomington’s Backstreet Missions on West Third Street, less than a mile from where he killed and dismembered Ellen Marks 26 years ago.
When murderer Robert Evan Lee gets released from prison today, he won't be staying at Bloomington's Backstreet Missions on West Third Street, less than a mile from where he killed and dismembered Ellen Marks 26 years ago.
The Herald-Times reports that Backstreet Missions' Executive Director Linda Kelley said she was unaware of the brutality of the murder Lee committed. She also did not know he had a conviction, in 1973, for an attempted rape at knife point in New York.
She says Department of Correction officials called Backstreet Missions and asked if the organization accepts people who have been convicted of murder and who have served their time.
Their answer was yes. Backstreet Missions allows convicted murderers to use their facilities and shelters. Sex offenders, however, are not allowed to stay there, Kelley says.
So now, Indiana Department of Correction officials are scrambling to find a place for Lee to stay in Bloomington during his year of parole.
He is being released after serving 25 years in prison in the slaying of 31-year-old Marks, a former Indiana University graduate student who major was English.
Now that Backstreet Missions has turned him away, state officials are searching for a place for Lee stay.
Upon his release from the Branchville Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison near Evansville, 57-year-old Lee will be transported in a DOC vehicle with his own money in his pockets. How much cash Lee will have on hand is not a matter of public record.
Regardless of where Lee lands, one thing is certain: he will be serving his year on parole in Bloomington. And DOC officials have added a new stipulation to his parole, mandating that he wear a GPS ankle bracelet so his whereabouts can be monitored.
1340 AM WBIW welcomes comments and suggestions by calling 812.277.1340 during normal business hours or by email at comments@wbiw.com
© Ad-Venture Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.