Murder of Karla Brown by John Prante examined on A Body in the Basement

ID is re-airing the A Body in the Basement investigation into the murder of Karla Brown, who was raped and killed by John Prante at her home in Wood River, Illinois.

On June 21, 1978, Mark Fair came home, accompanied by a friend, to find his fiance, 22-year-old Karla, had been brutally murdered and left in the basement of their new house.

The young couple had only moved into the house the day before, and Karla was spending the day unpacking their belongings when she was attacked. She had been on the phone with a friend when she hung up because someone came to the door.

Karla was raped, beaten, cut, strangled, and drowned in a barrel of water. She was found in the laundry room of the basement with the top half of her body bent over and submerged in the water. She was naked from the waist down.

The young woman’s hands were tied behind her back with an extension cord, and her head and face were covered with wounds. Karla had also suffered a bite mark on her collarbone.

The room around her had been trashed. The cops found a coffee jug nearby, which they believe the killer used to transport the water from upstairs.

John Prante was the No.1 suspect in Karla Brown killing

John Prante was an early suspect in the case because he had been seen by a number of witnesses in the area around the time of the murder. Prante’s friend lived in a neighboring house, and he had spent most of the day sitting on the porch smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol.

However, the case lay dormant for about four years until the authorities decided to exhume Karla’s body so they could make a mold of the bitemark. They used that mold to match the bitemark to Prante’s teeth.

In July 1983, Prante was found guilty of murder and was sentenced to 75 years. The killer benefitted from an old law that allowed a day off his sentence for every day of good behavior, meaning he was paroled after 36 years. In 1998, the Truth-in-Sentencing law was passed in Illinois, which requires prisoners found guilty of first-degree murder to serve 100% of their sentences.

John Prante continues to claim he did not kill Karla Brown

Prante has consistently maintained his innocence and continues to lodge appeals to have the sentence overturned. Most recently, Prante has requested updated DNA tests to be performed on semen recovered from the crime scene.

In February 2022, Prante was charged with DUI and disregarding a stop sign following a single-car crash. He reportedly told a police officer he had not been “this high or drunk in 37 years.”

This episode of A Body in the Basement re-airs Friday at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery.