Fred Grabbe, convicted of wife's murder, released on parole

The Tribune-Star, Terre Haute, Ind.
·1 min read

Jul. 16—A former Clark County, Illinois, farmer twice convicted of killing his wife has been released from an Illinois prison.

Fred B. Grabbe, 83, has been released on parole, according to online records of the Illinois Department of Corrections. His parole was confirmed Friday by a departmental spokeswoman. He had been held at Dixon Correctional Center in northwestern Illinois.

His wife, formerly Charlotte Sue Gore, disappeared from the couple's farm near Marshall, Illinois, in July 1981 at the age of 39.

Grabbe denied killing his wife but was convicted in 1985, with that conviction being overturned in 1987.

Grabbe was convicted again in April 1988 and, in August 1988, he was sentenced to 75 years in prison by Champaign County Judge Robert Steigmann.

Authorities presented evidence that Grabbe put his wife's body in a 55-gallon drum and burned it near the Wabash River. He eventually dumped the contents of the drum into the river, throwing the head in separately.