Sep. 22--BEASON -- "None of the kids are here!" shouted postmaster Jodie Duncan to a school bus driver as the bus pulled up at the Beason post office Tuesday morning, ready to pick up the usual 10 kids.

But only two children ended up getting on the bus, one day after a multiple homicide at a Beason home just down Broadway Street from the post office, in a town of about 200.

Police say two parents and three children -- ages 16, 14 and 11 -- are dead, victims of a "brutal homicide" that sent police searching Tuesday for an armed and dangerous suspect. A fourth child, a 3-year-old girl, was being treated at a Peoria hospital.

Not on the bus

Missing from Tuesday's Chester-East Lincoln bus were Austin Gee, 11, and Dillen Constant, 14, said Duncan. She also said she'd often see 16-year-old Justina Constant, who attends Lincoln Community High School, when Justina got off the bus in the afternoons.

"I call them my kids, my babies," said Duncan, of rural Beason, referring to the schoolchildren who wait at the post office for their bus to come. Duncan said a "take one" candy jar on her front counter is popular with the kids.

Duncan said she often talked to Ruth Gee about the family's kids, including eighth-grader Dillen, who was a a wrestler.

"When I say he was 'all boy,' I mean he was ALL BOY," she said Tuesday.

She said Austin was more into school and doing his homework.

"He's a good kid, a good kid," Duncan said.

3-year-old's friend

Lillian Moore, who lives two blocks east on East Street, dropped off her 5-year-old daughter and a niece at the bus stop Tuesday morning.

She said her 3-year-old, Cynthia, attends afternoon school with the injured 3-year-old girl. The two were set to go back to school together Wednesday afternoon -- the only girls in a group full of boys.

"It's gonna be hard on my girl when she gets back to school and (the injured girl) not being there," Moore said.

Past closing time

Duncan said she stayed at the post office until 10 p.m. Monday, well past closing time, as residents sought information and to use the washroom.

She's lived in rural Beason for about nine years and calls it a "quiet, just quiet" town.

"Everybody watches out for each other's kids," she said. "Parents don't care if you fuss up their kids, or spoil them."

The old central business district on Broadway is full of vacant storefronts, plus the post office.

The only businesses left in town are the grain elevator, a trucking business and the Beason Ag Center on the east side, said Brian Voyles of rural Beason, who works in the shop at the ag center.

Voyles said a lot has changed in Beason since he grew up there, and that he doesn't even know everyone in town anymore.

"It's a bad deal," he said of the multiple homicides.

Friend 'in disbelief'

Russell Miller, who identified himself as a friend of the Gees, lives nearby and said he was in "disbelief as to what I'm hearing" about the deaths.

He said he's spent time with the family involved and has known Ruth Gee for more than 30 years.

"I've spent evenings there, watched movies there," Miller said.

He said living in Beason is "almost like living out in the country" and that he's seen several gas stations and a restaurant in town close over the years.

"Back in the 1920s, this was a kickin' place," he said.

When asked how the deaths would affect Beason's future, he teared up.

"I don't know how to put that into words," he said.

This story will be updated.

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