Encyclopedia of Arkansas
The apparent murder in
Saline County in 1987 of seventeen-year-old Kevin Ives and sixteen-year-old Don Henry has spurred ongoing controversy, including conspiracy theories tying their deaths to a drug-smuggling scandal. The case was the subject of journalist Mara Leveritt’s award-winning book
The Boys on the Tracks.
Best friends Kevin Ives and Don Henry had been out hunting late on Saturday night, August 22, 1987.
On Sunday, August 23, 1987, at around 4:00 a.m., the bodies of the two boys were spotted by the crew of a Union Pacific locomotive near Crooked Creek trestle in
Alexander (Pulaski and Saline counties). The bodies were lying between the tracks, wrapped in a pale green tarp; there was a gun nearby. The train was unable to avoid running over the bodies. The train’s crew immediately reported the incident to railroad officials and to local law enforcement at
Benton (Saline County), where the train had come to a full stop. By 4:40 a.m., local and state police had arrived at the scene and begun investigating. At first, local officials treated the incident like an apparent suicide despite the objections of the train crew. Reportedly, no tarp was found by the police, but they did take in a shattered .22 caliber rifle as evidence.
State officials—including the state medical examiner, Dr. Fahmy Malak—ruled the boys’ death as an apparent suicide despite the fact that all four parents disputed the ruling.