Reward offered for information on death of Anna, Ill., man

A $5,000 reward for information leading authorities to the killer of an Anna, Ill., man will be available for only a few days at most, Pulaski County State's Attorney Grayson Gile said Thursday.

Trea Hannah, 23, was found Jan. 4 in his burned-out Mercury Tracer. A large amount of physical evidence was collected at the scene and sent to a state crime lab for analysis, Gile said.

"It is going to give us a much clearer understanding of what occurred," Gile said. "We have interviewed well over 100 individuals, and it is really just a matter of time."

The reward, offered Thursday by the Pulaski County Commission, is an incentive for anyone with direct knowledge of who committed the crime to step forward, Gile said. If the lab analysis provides conclusive proof, the reward will be withdrawn, he said.

He's confident the lab will provide that proof and in a matter of days, he said.

"There are several individuals involved in this," Gile said. "They may not be intimately involved and criminal charges may not be appropriate. But we are confident they have the personal knowledge of who committed this and that they told a number of individuals."

Pulaski County is offering the reward to show it doesn't want to become a haven for people who want to conceal criminal activity, Gile said. The county is mostly rural, with large tracts of land with almost no population.

Hannah was last seen in Anna and in Pulaski County on Dec. 29. He was reported missing by family members on Jan. 2 and wasn't discovered until Jan. 4.

He was in his car a couple miles north of the village of Pulaski, off a gravel road in an area that is not generally accessible, Gile said.

Investigators are not revealing any information about how Hannah died. The key to the case could be determining whether someone coming forward with information is telling what they actually know or what they have read or seen in media reports, Gile said.

The Illinois State Police is cooperating with the Pulaski County Sheriff's office to solve the case. Anyone interested in claiming the reward should call the Illinois State Police at (618) 845-3740, extension 280.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126