By Verna Slate, Williamson County Bureau
CARBONDALE — More than 200 people filled the Agriculture Building at Southern Illinois University Tuesday evening to remember a man the Southern Illinoisan described as "kind, brilliant."
Kofi Akamani, a forestry professor at SIU, was shot and killed Saturday at a home between Murphysboro and Carbondale, according to the Daily Egyptian. His wife, Betty Akamani, 35, has been arrested and faces two felony murder charges in the case, the paper reported.
The Southern Illinoisan reported that Betty Akamani appeared in court Monday afternoon and will be held at the Jackson County jail pending her murder trial.
Students, faculty and community members gathered Tuesday to grieve a man who spent his career studying the forests and communities of southern Illinois — now the subject of the very kind of tragedy that leaves a county searching for words. The vigil offered none of the answers the courthouse will eventually have to provide. What it offered was company, and a chance to say his name.
The case now moves toward trial in Jackson County, a process that will unfold in public view in the months ahead.
— Compiled from reporting by the Daily Egyptian and the Southern Illinoisan.
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