Real Name: Kevin Ives and Donald Henry
Don Henry and Kevin Ives
Nicknames: No Known Nicknames
Location: Bryant, Arkansas
Date: August 23, 1987
Case
Details: In 1987, teenagers Kevin Ives and Don Henry were discovered spread out over the train tracks near their home. The engineer of the train that noticed them was unable to stop his train in time to prevent running over them; he later rationalized that due to the noise of his on-coming train, that the boys had to have been dead and positioned on the tracks. The local police suspiciously rushed to a solution in the case, judging the boys had died from drug abuse on the tracks, but the boys families' are convinced that they were murdered and that there was a police cover-up of a CIA operation. A green tarp was seen on top of the boys by the conductors, but it vanished by the time they started looking for it after the boys were run over. The boys were positioned in ways that it was impossible for someone under the influence of marijuana to end on. A few months after the deaths, the parents of the boys held a press conference, and the case was reopened. A grand jury over-ruled the ruling of accidental death and changed the deaths of the boys to probable homicide. An investigator found that a similar case occurred in Hodgen, Oklahoma, in which two young men were found lying on train tracks and ran over in 1984, positioned almost identically to Don and Kevin. However, police have found no suspects in the deaths.
Suspects: There are rumors of an unidentified figure in military fatigues loitering in the area before the train ran over Ives and Henry. However, a local witness claims that he saw two police officers beating two boys senseless in a store parking lot before tossing them into a truck and driving away. It is unknown whether or not the boys were Ives and Henry. Theory is the boys might have accdentally observed a drug drop. In 1996, Linda Ives released the video, "Obstruction of Justice," detailing the botched investigation and a cover-up of an alledged drug ring in Saline County. Several people have been implicated in this conspiracy which has involved numerous investigations and two grand juries.
Extra Notes: This segment originally aired on the October 12, 1988 episode of Unsolved Mysteries .
This case ranks as one of the most remembered cases in the series.
Scott Johnson and Norman Ladner are two other cases involving youths who might have been murdered upon observing drug drops.
Results: Unresolved. Police later found evidence of stab wounds on Don's shirt and the investigation changed from probable homicide to definite homicide. Tips to the telecenter suggested that the boys were murdered by drug dealers, and that they may have stumbled onto them with the drugs. However, no suspects were ever named in the case. In 1995, the investigation into the murders of Kevin Ives and Don Henry was officially closed without the boys' killer captured or identified.
Links: