Woman slowly killed ex-police chief with eye drops, IL cops say. She gets prison

A 71-year-old ex-police chief was fatally poisoned over the course of months, and now his girlfriend has been sentenced to prison, Illinois officials say.

Marcy Oglesby, 53, was sentenced to 50 years in prison during an Oct. 27 court hearing in Knox County, records show.

McClatchy News reached out to an attorney for Oglesby but didn’t immediately hear back.

The sentencing comes after Oglesby was found guilty of murder in June, as well as attempted murder and aggravated battery, Knox County State’s Attorney Ashley Worby said in a news release.

According to Worby, former Maquon police chief Richard Young, 71, died a slow death as Oglesby poisoned him for months, beginning in the summer of 2021, until his death on Nov. 1, 2021.

Oglesby then hid Young’s body in a storage unit “directly across the street from their shared home,” Worby said. Young’s remains were discovered nearly a year later, on Oct. 7 2022, “in an advanced state of decomposition.”

Investigators say Oglesby and Young had been in a relationship for decades, McClatchy News previously reported. She’s accused of poisoning him with eye drops and “other medications,” according to officials.

An autopsy revealed high levels of a common ingredient in eye drops, tetrahydrozoline, in his system, and his cause of death was ruled tetrahydrozoline poisoning, WQAD reported.

“She killed a man who loved her and who cared for her for nearly 30 years, and she didn’t just kill him. She poisoned him and watched him suffer,” Worby said at Ogleby’s sentencing, KWQC reported.

Oglesby denies killing Young.

“I respectfully disagree with the court’s findings, and I will not be referencing a murder that did not happen,” she said, the station reported. “He didn’t go into that box immediately. I put him back to bed and continued to talk to him for three days.”

Records show Oglesby motioned for a new trial, and a hearing will be held on the matter Nov. 6.

Worby described Young as a “devoted public servant” whose “compassion extended beyond his badge. Whether it was a neighbor in need, a family member, or a stray animal, Rick was always willing to lend a hand,” she said in a release.

“After years of patience and persistence, Rick, and his family and friends finally have justice,” she said.

Maquon is a roughly 190-mile drive southwest from Chicago.

This story was originally published October 29, 2025 at 10:14 AM with the headline "Woman slowly killed ex-police chief with eye drops, IL cops say. She gets prison."