Town file
Mount Zion, Illinois
Mount Zion, Illinois (Macon County, Illinois) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 217, "A Missing Model & Doggy DNA - Mt Zion, Illinois" (1 April 2021). Karen Slover was twenty-three, an advertising consultant at the Herald Review newspaper in Decatur, Illinois, and the mother of a three-year-old son, Colton.
- Town
- Mount Zion
- County
- Macon County
- State
- Illinois
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 217
- Approximate location
- 39.784, -88.885
Episode 217 / 1 April 2021 / 169 min / full
A Missing Model & Doggy DNA - Mt Zion, Illinois
"We're going to Mount Zion, Illinois, which is central Illinois; this is in Macon County." about 0:06:15
The case: Murder of Karen Slover (September 1996). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2021
- Population
- 5,979
- Median age
- 41.5
- Median household income
- about $71,100 a year
- Median home value
- $125,100
- Two-bedroom rent
- about $765 a month
- Cost of living
- 78.5
- Religious
- 49%
- Property crime
- ▼ about one third
- Violent crime
- ▼ under half
History, in brief
- Macon County was formed out of part of Shelby County and named for Nathaniel Macon, a colonel in the Revolutionary War and later a senator. about 0:08:33
- Abraham Lincoln and his family moved to this county in 1830, when he was young. about 0:08:40
- The township is bounded on the north by Long Creek, on the west by the Wheatland and South Macon townships, on the south by Millam township and on the east by Moultrie County, with an area of thirty-nine square miles. about 0:09:11
- The township is well drained by Finley, Big and Sandy creeks. about 0:09:27
- The first settler was James Finley, who came from Kentucky in 1827 and built a cabin of unhewn logs. about 0:09:39
- Rob Low built the first mill in Mount Zion township in 1835, a band mill run by horsepower. about 0:10:04
The reviews read out
3 stars
"A quaint little town with a small population of predominantly white people; Christianity is the unofficial religion; town gatherings bubble into a bountiful array of smiling children; the children are adaptable to cultural variations, reflecting the loving, qualified leaders."about 0:10:29
4 stars
"Low crime, packages do not disappear and traffic is light, but the whole town smells because of a nearby giant soybean processing factory and the reviewer worries about lung damage from a glass-making factory that stores crushed glass outside."about 0:12:08
4 stars
"Safe and quiet, but nothing to do past ten o'clock and not much cultural diversity; the reviewer wants more recreational places and later-night activities."about 0:13:32
4 stars
"A quiet, safe place to live and work, but the surrounding area is rural and most good entertainment, restaurants and stores are at least ten minutes away."about 0:14:09
5 stars
"Ten years in the town, safe and welcoming, always running into somebody the reviewer knows; would like something brought in to generate revenue, such as a new park."about 0:14:24
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Morton, Illinois65 miles
- Troy, Illinois91 miles
- Middlebury, Indiana101 miles
- Kankakee, Illinois106 miles
- Vincennes, Indiana106 miles
- Lafayette, Indiana115 miles
Everything here is as told in the episode, on the date it went out; figures and places may have changed since. Endings are covered: open an episode and use the spoiler switch to read them.