SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - The site of a 1981 grisly Springfield ax murder is set to be demolished.
Someone walked into Lauterbach Cottage Hardware Store on March 18, 1981, grabbed an ax from the back and swung at three people.
One person died. The man was never caught.
Now, that site will be no more. A private contractor removed asbestos from the building Thursday.
The building in the 1500 block of South Grand Ave. E. will be demolished within a week.
The suspect from the decades old attack has been described as a "light-skinned black man with afro-style hair."
The man walked into the store in the morning, grabbed an ax, and forced 48-year-old Yvonne Lauterbach to the front of her store.
64-year-old customer John Ewing had come into the store to buy contact paper.
37-year-old Floyd Giddings owned a sewing machine repair shop that shared space with the hardware store.
The ax man forced all three people to their knees and swung at their heads. Ewing was struck three times and died before police arrived.
Lauterbach and Giddings suffered lifelong health problems as a result of their injuries.
Giddings lost his memory, spent weeks in a coma, and died in 1989. Lauterbach died in 2000. Police classified the deaths as "murder delayed."
The case has never been solved.
