re: Bodies of the old couple who were buying a mustang on craigslist found

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Years ago, driving through Marietta before Christmas Eve, Runion saw two young girls sorting through a dumpster, his daughter said. He fixed up two bicycles belonging to his own girls and delivered them as gifts.

It was the beginning of "Bud's Bicycles," a charity run loosely out of Mount Paran Church of God in Marietta. Runion met his wife, a teacher, at the church in the 1970s.

Neighbors said the Runions built a shed in their backyard to house the bikes. Their donations eventually expanded to include food, household and school supplies, coats, blankets — even Thanksgiving turkeys.

"Basically, he had a food pantry in the basement of their house," Patterson said.

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Someone tied flowers to a child's bicycle and left it standing below a flag flying at half-staff in the couple's front yard in Marietta

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"He's a good kid, and very smart," said the uncle, who sometimes hired his nephew to help install carpet and flooring customers had purchased from Buddy Towns' business in McRae.

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