A 78-year-old man, John Wesley Allen, was tragically killed during one of his visits to his older sister in East St. Louis, Illinois. His family shared details on Friday, describing a heart-wrenching incident involving a teenager dressed in a clown costume wielding a knife.
Allen, a retired bus driver known for his surprise visits, often went to see his sister, Delores Fowler, 82. He was discovered dead near a bus stop he frequently used. Fowler recounted how Allen used to call unannounced, asking if she was home before making his way towards her.
“He’d never make an appointment. He’d just call me and say, ‘Are you at home?’ Then I’d say, ‘Yeah, I’ll come get you at the MetroLink station or the bus stop,’” she shared with NBC News.
Allen worked as a bus driver for Metro Transit in St. Louis from 1977 until he retired in 1994. Despite concerns from his family over his solo travels on public transit, he enjoyed socializing and meeting people.
“He was a very friendly person. He would talk to anybody. He just loved people,” Fowler said.
Allen lived in a retirement community after his wife’s passing in 2019. His wife, Yvonne Allen, was 65 at the time of her death. Allen’s niece, Tania Stanford, said family members were always worried about his unplanned visits but acknowledged how much he cherished time with his sister.
“He was a joyful person and he was loved. He was a friendly guy who would do anything. He’d give you the shirt off his back if he could,” Stanford said.
Sadly, Allen’s family learned of his death through broadcast news, as Fowler initially doubted the reports until names confirmed her worst fears.
“Friends were asking me, ‘Is this John that we’ve been seeing (on local TV news), that somebody killed him?’” she said. “That’s when I turned the TV on and they said it was a ‘Wesley Allen’ and I said to myself, ‘Well, that’s not him. His name is John Wesley Allen.’”
A 15-year-old has been charged with Allen’s murder, and Illinois State Police are leading the investigation, though no lawyer has been confirmed for the suspect. The authorities declined to offer further comments.
Fowler expressed her wish for serious legal repercussions: “We want him tried as an adult. He took a person’s life for no reason.”
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