Less than six months into his 20-year prison sentence, the former sheriff’s deputy convicted of second-degree murder for the fatal shooting of an unarmed Sangamon County woman is asking the state to release him from prison on medical grounds. Sean Grayson, 32, filed for release under the Joe Coleman Act last month. Under the act, a person […]
Beth Hundsdorfer
Beth Hundsdorfer joined the Capitol News Illinois team as a full-time reporter in November 2021.
Hundsdorfer is a veteran investigative reporter who spent nearly 20 years at the Belleville News-Democrat, 13 of which were spent on the investigative beat.
Her resume includes two John Jay College Journalism awards for excellence in criminal justice, a National Headliners Grand Award, a George Polk Award and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for local reporting among other accolades.
Prior to joining Capitol News Illinois, she had a brief stint at St. Louis Public Radio, and she spent two years as the public information officer at the Illinois State Police, fielding news media inquiries on issues ranging from traffic crashes to policy and procedure.
Posted inNews
Sean Grayson serving prison sentence, but state officials won’t say where
Former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson, who was convicted last year of shooting an unarmed woman, has begun serving his 20-year prison sentence with the Illinois Department of Corrections in an undisclosed location. IDOC confirmed that Grayson, 31, is in their custody but won’t confirm his whereabouts. A source close to the case said […]
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ICE comes to southern Illinois
When Jose Jeronimo Guardian showed up at a Spanish language traffic court last week, he didn’t expect to be detained and face expulsion from a country he’d lived in for more than two decades. Guardian, 48, was scheduled to appear Oct. 27 in a courtroom where a county-provided translator would aid communication with about a […]
Posted inEditor's Note, Opinion
Editors note 7/24/25
For my high school newspaper, I wrote a column titled “What in the World?” in which I earnestly parroted what I’d read about global affairs in The New Republic. Later in my career, though still young, I became an editorial writer, from which post I regularly weighed in on how Nixon and Kissinger ought to […]
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Fifth person dies as a result of Chatham afterschool program crash
An 8-year-old boy is the most recent casualty of a car crash at a Chatham daycare April 28. Bradley Lund, 8, has been in a Springfield hospital since the collision at YNOT Outdoors five weeks ago, according to Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon. Bradley sustained “multiple blunt force injuries” when a black Jeep driven by […]
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Longtime Chicago friend describes first American pope as ‘very dedicated’
As the red velvet curtains at the Vatican parted, a priest realized that his college pal from the South Side of Chicago that he knows as “Bob” had been elected the first American pope. “Oh, dear God,” the Very Rev. Anthony Benedetto Pizzo, the prior provincial of the Augustinian Order in Chicago, said as he […]
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Driver of deadly crash at after-school camp is a former State Police employee
The driver of a vehicle involved in a deadly crash Monday at an after-school program formerly worked for the Illinois State Police, the agency investigating the crash. The ISP identified the driver as Marianne Akers, 44, of Chatham. She worked at the ISP from June 2006 to August 2018, an ISP spokesman confirmed Tuesday. The […]
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Inside the harrowing 100-mile police chase in Sangamon County
When Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Jonathan Pearce saw a white pickup spotted outside a motorcycle shop that had been burglarized earlier that night, he punched the gas and chased the fleeing truck, reaching race car speeds and screeching his tires through hairpin turns. Sgt. James Hayes, his supervisor, asked whether he had enough gas. “I […]
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Sangamon County target of DOJ investigation
The Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office is under investigation by the U. S. Department of Justice for civil rights violations, but the probe may go beyond the fatal shooting of Sonya Massey. The U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights probe will investigate the sheriff’s department, but also Sangamon County Central Dispatch and the county itself. The […]
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Sheriff’s department hiring under scrutiny
Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell came under fire for his hiring practices after he employed a deputy with two DUI convictions, who is now accused of the murder of an unarmed Black woman in her kitchen. But it wasn’t the first time he chose to hire someone accused of drunk driving and repeated misconduct. In […]
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Questions remain over whether Sangamon County followed policy in deadly pursuit
As the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office led a multi-county pursuit last month that ended in the death of a 43-year-old Kansas man, Illinois State Police directed troopers not to participate. A Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office news release issued a week after Kirtis Shane Davenport’s death stated “various other law enforcement agencies” assisted, but ISP confirmed […]
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Illinois State Police investigate another Sangamon County officer-involved death
Illinois State Police launched an investigation into the death of a Kansas man during a multi-county pursuit on Sept. 22 by Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputies. Kirtis Shane Davenport, 43, died on Sept. 26 at St. Louis University Hospital, according to the St. Louis City Medical Examiner. An autopsy was completed on Oct. 1 to determine […]
