LAURA J. GHALYON
HARDIN CO. – An early February shooting that left a local woman dead and a child in custody as the suspect has rocked Hardin County.
Authorities haven’t been entirely clear on the status of the case as of press time, but they are still dealing with misinformation that has spread virally in the absence of officials being able to discuss it, as the alleged suspect is only 12, and authorities can’t elaborate on juvenile cases.
The incident unfolded in the early morning hours of Friday, February 10, 2017.
At 3:57 a.m., a report came in to Hardin County Sheriff’s Department that a woman was shot at a location north of the village of Cave-in-Rock, in the area known as Lamb Town.
Responding authorities upon arrival found Laura J. Ghalyon, also known as Laura Ford, 48, dead of a gunshot wound.
With her in the residence was her boyfriend, Richard Chrisman, 51, and Chrisman’s 12-year-old son.
Ghalyon had moved to the home recently in order to be a caregiver to the elder Chrisman, who had been seriously injured in a car crash in December on Route 1 at Highway 146.
The accident had put the elder Chrisman in a wheelchair, so reportedly, Ghalyon had opted to move into Chrisman’s home to help.
However, reports indicate that the 12-year-old boy in the home was more than a handful for both the elder Chrisman and Ghalyon. From the time of the accident up until the shooting, there were reported contentions with the boy. Unofficially, several reports indicate that the child acted out, and at times was out of control, prompting concern for the family…although the level to which the child allegedly took things was somewhat unexpected.
Following the shooting, however, several people were getting things turned around in the wake of it.
Authorities in Hardin told Disclosure that there were many folks who were disseminating information that the elder Chrisman had been shot as well, and was only injured and not killed. These folks asserting this pointed to the fact that Chrisman was in the wheelchair. However, authorities advised that apparently a lot of people have forgotten about the December accident, and that Chrisman’s injuries from that accident were why he was wheelchair-bound and were the reason why Ghalyon had moved in with him. Chrisman, authorities have stated, was not shot in the February 10 incident.
There were also a series of rumblings about the 12-year-old boy being the same one that had been removed from the school in Elizabethtown just a few weeks prior to the shooting.
While Sheriff JT Fricker couldn’t confirm or deny that, reports did surface about a child being taken from the school in handcuffs in mid-January, and many are convinced that this is the same child. The situation was described as a 12-year-old boy being new to the school being disruptive and threatening, and threatened the sheriff when he responded.
The Chrisman child had only recently been enrolled in the school, as he had moved in with his dad from having been with his mom in Harrisburg.
While Fricker again couldn’t confirm or deny any of it, people associated with the school advised that this was the same child, and that the day before the shooting, Ghalyon had had to go pick up the boy from the school because he’d gotten in trouble again. That incident, they advise, was the predicating event for the animosity to arise between the two again, and which is what lead to the shooting.
Officials have confirmed that the juvenile has been in court on at least two occasions since the shooting and is considered “in custody.” There has been no official word on charges, which is somewhat unusual. Even if a juvenile has been charged with a juvenile felony, generally, authorities will release that information.
New State’s Attorney Daniel Cockrum has issued two press releases, both of them mentioning that there was a person “taken into custody,” one of them stating that the person in custody was 12 years of age, neither of them listing charges.
The matter remains under investigation by Illinois State Police in District 22 Ullin, and the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office.