Two charged in stabbing death of 97-year-old

CASEYVILLE, Ill. -- Two men were charged Saturday with murder in the stabbing death of a 97-year-old woman described by her son as generous and trusting.

Tom Clark found his mother, Frances Clark, dead of multiple stab wounds when he went to pick her up from her home to go shopping on Thursday.

Police charged her 44-year-old neighbor, Lee F. Price Sr., and 33-year-old Collinsville resident Richard D. Oliver with first-degree murder.

"She thanked the Lord for letting her live so long so she could meet so many people, and the last person she met butchered her," Tom Clark said.

Price was new to the neighborhood.

Capt. Jim Stover of the 11-county Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis said the two men were being held in the St. Clair County Jail on $3 million bond each. He said police would seek additional charges, including home invasion, sexual assault and armed robbery.

Stover would not say what led detectives to the two men.

Investigators have yet to determine a motive in the case, though Caseyville Police Chief Ron Tamburello said Thursday that robbery was a possibility. Clark's purse still contained $241 from a Social Security check she had just cashed.

Neither men had retained an attorney and it was unclear Saturday if they would apply for a public defender.