Authorities said Amy Finney was found dead inside a Ford Escape after officers stopped her husband in rural southern Illinois.

MOUNT VERNON, Ill. — An Illinois man has been sentenced to 75 years in prison after he was convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting death of his wife, whose body was found inside his Ford Escape after a police stop.

John W. Finney, 52, was found guilty in the death of 42-year-old Amy J. Finney, closing a case that began on Sept. 1, 2025, with a report of a possible homicide in Jefferson County. The sentence moves the case from investigation and trial to prison transfer, with authorities saying Finney is expected to serve his time in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said deputies first received the homicide report at about 8 p.m. on Sept. 1, along with information about a gray 2007 Ford Escape tied to the case. Officers began looking for the vehicle across a rural part of southern Illinois. About an hour later, a Christopher police officer spotted the Escape near Illinois Highway 14 and Illinois Highway 148. The officer followed it west on Highway 14 while waiting for backup. Deputies from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office joined the response, and officers stopped the vehicle in the 9000 block of Birch Road in rural Du Quoin. John Finney was inside and was detained at the stop.

During a protective sweep of the vehicle, officers found Amy Finney dead inside, authorities said. Court records cited by regional news reports said her body was in the hatchback area of the Escape. At the same time, Jefferson County deputies were working at the couple’s home in the 7500 block of North Illinois Highway 148, a rural Mount Vernon address. The sheriff’s office said deputies found evidence that supported the home as the crime scene. The office later said preliminary evidence strongly supported that Amy Finney died from a gunshot wound during a domestic dispute with John Finney at their home. The exact sequence of events inside the residence has not been fully detailed publicly.

The case drew attention because the fatal shooting, the movement of the body and the arrest unfolded across more than one county. Jefferson County authorities handled the homicide investigation, while the traffic stop happened in Perry County. The Christopher Police Department, Du Quoin Police Department, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Perry County Sheriff’s Office, Mt. Vernon Police Department and Illinois State Police were among the agencies listed in early reports. Illinois State Police crime scene technicians processed both the residence and the vehicle stop location. The Perry County coroner responded to the traffic stop site and took custody of Amy Finney’s body. Detectives also notified her family after the discovery, according to local reports.

Investigators said the couple’s home became central to the case soon after the vehicle was stopped. Detectives obtained search warrants for the residence and the Ford Escape with help from the Jefferson County state’s attorney. The warrants allowed investigators to collect evidence from both the suspected shooting scene and the vehicle where Amy Finney was found. Authorities have not publicly released a full inventory of the evidence. Early reports said GPS data from John Finney’s cellphone showed he spent several hours driving around the county on Sept. 1 before officers stopped him. Investigators also believed the killing happened on Aug. 31, one day before the traffic stop, though officials have not publicly released every detail behind that timeline.

John Finney was initially arrested at age 51 and booked into the Jefferson County Jail on a first-degree murder charge. By the time of sentencing, he was 52. The conviction and 75-year sentence marked the court’s finding that prosecutors had proved the murder charge. After the sentencing hearing, Finney was returned to jail to await transfer to state prison. The sheriff’s office said he would be moved to the Illinois Department of Corrections, where the sentence will be carried out under state prison rules. Public reports did not list any additional sentence on a separate charge tied to moving the body or the police stop.

The traffic stop remains one of the key moments in the public record. A Christopher officer saw the gray Escape near two state highways and kept it in sight until other officers arrived. Once the stop was made on Birch Road, police secured the scene while officers searched the vehicle and detained John Finney. The sheriff’s office described the vehicle search as a preliminary protective sweep. In a statement quoted by news outlets, the office said the sweep by officers conducting the stop discovered Finney’s wife, Amy J. Finney, deceased in the vehicle. That discovery turned the search for a vehicle of interest into a homicide case with two active evidence scenes.

At the rural Mount Vernon home, deputies secured the residence while investigators worked to determine whether the killing had happened there. Officials said evidence at the residence supported that conclusion. “Preliminary evidence gathered strongly supports that Amy Finney died from a gunshot wound during a domestic dispute with John at their home,” the sheriff’s office said after the arrest. The statement did not describe who made the first report to 911, what led that person to call, or whether anyone else was inside the home when the shooting happened. Those details remained outside the public summaries of the case.

The case moved from a reported possible homicide to a vehicle search, then to a murder arrest within roughly one hour on Sept. 1. It later moved through prosecution and ended with the 75-year prison sentence announced in June 2026. The result leaves John Finney convicted of killing his wife and awaiting transfer from jail to state custody.

Author note: Last updated July 8, 2026.