While Webster Manufacturing was wellknown for the items it produced, the Macomb plant also became synonymous with a tragic incident nine years after its opening.
Around 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 1989, 36-year-old Fred Hopkins of Macomb entered the Webster Industries factory, where he shot two co-workers who were preparing for their shifts: Pamela Buce, 29, died at the scene, and Jim Cobb, 31, died later at McDonough District Hospital.
According to then-Macomb Police Chief Richard Clark, the attack appeared to be motivated by jealousy, as Buce was reportedly Hopkins’ former girlfriend. Described as an avid outdoorsman with a gun collection, Hopkins fled the scene in a 1977 Chevrolet Malibu. The vehicle was later found abandoned near the Schuyler and Fulton County border. A multiagency manhunt ensued in the surrounding area before the suspect was captured days later in Schuyler County.
Bill Poncin, who served as the McDonough County state’s attorney during Hopkins’ trial, recalled during the jury selection prior to the start of the trial, about one year after the murders, Hopkins changed his plea from “not guilty” to “guilty but mentally ill.” The former state’s attorney explained the death penalty was still in force in Illinois at the time of his arrest, so Hopkins could have faced capital punishment or natural life in prison. He elected to change his plea, and in 1990, he was sentenced to natural life in prison in 1990. Hopkins, who turned 75 on Aug. 25, remains incarcerated at the Dixon Correctional Facility, where he was admitted on Sept. 14, 1990.
