Ina is located along Illinois Route 37 which is the village's Main Street, and Interstate 57 runs through the west side of town, with access from Exit 83.

Mount Vernon, the Jefferson county seat, is 11 miles (18 km) to the north, and Benton is the same distance to the south.

Rend Lake College, with an Ina mailing address, is outside the village limits to the southwest.

[citation needed] The main settlement in this area was Spring Garden, about 3 miles (5 km) northeast of Ina.

The victims were the Dardeen family, who lived in a mobile home on Illinois Route 37 just north of the Franklin County line.

One evening in November 1987, the police came to the house since Keith Dardeen had not shown up for his job at the Rend Lake Water Conservancy District treatment plant that morning and did not answer phone calls.

[7] Elaine had not been raped, valuable items remained in the house, and police found no reason why anyone might want to have killed the family.

[7] The following population figures for Ina were greatly influenced by the approximately 1,850 male inmates who were included from the Big Muddy River Correctional Center, which had been annexed to the original village.

These last two statistics were heavily influenced by the approximately 1850 male inmates in the Big Muddy River Correctional Center.