By: AMY BURNETT

On August 23, 1987, Saline County, Arkansas was rocked by the mysterious deaths of two teenagers who were run over by a Union Pacific Train in Alexander. The two teenagers were identified as Kevin Ives and Don Henry. Kevin and Don were to start their senior year at Bryant High School the following Monday. When the boy’s pictures were aired on the news, I recognized Kevin as a boy I had met at a friend’s house. “How could such a terrible thing happen?” I asked myself. Little did I know I was in for the shock of my life!

Kevin and Don had left Don’s home around midnight after a night of cruising on Geyer Springs Road in Little Rock to go out spotlighting near the tracks. The following morning Don’s father, Curtis, became concerned because Kevin and Don had not come back home. He went out to look for them but they were nowhere to be found.

The police arrived at the Henry home and Curtis called and told Linda, Kevin’s mom, she needed to come over. Two boys had been run over by a passing Union Pacific Train and the police needed a description of their boys. Sadly, the descriptions fit the descriptions of the two boys that had been found. The Ives and Henry families were shocked and in disbelief. “What in the world has happened to our boys?” they asked.

An investigation in to their deaths revealed the boys had apparently smoked a substantial amount of marijuana, possibly laid down on the tracks in a stupor and were ran over by the train. Their deaths were ruled “accidental” by the State Medical Examiner Fahmy Malak. The Saline County Sheriff told the Ives and Henry families to accept that their children had died in a terrible accident or that their children may have possibly committed suicide. However, Kevin’s parents, Larry and Linda Ives, and Don’s parents, Curtis and Marvelle Henry, would not accept that this was a terrible accident or that their children had committed suicide. It was then that Linda Ives began a crusade to find out what really happened to her son and his friend. The families also pushed the sheriff’s office to investigate their children’s deaths further.

A more extensive investigation into the deaths of Kevin and Don revealed that the boys had been murdered and placed on the tracks to be run over by a train as a cover up. I assume the killer or killers figured no one would figure out that the boys had been killed prior to the train running over them. However their secret was found out. Another pathologist, Joe Burton, examined Kevin and Don and found that Kevin had been beaten in the face, by the butt of a gun most likely, and that Don had been stabbed prior to the train running over them. The boys were already dead and the train was not what killed them.

The Ives and Henry families were forced now to accept that their sons had been murdered and that they had not committed suicide or been the victims of a terrible accident. The citizens of Saline County were rocked because the county now had a double homicide of two children on their hands. I was so saddened, hurt and shocked that someone I knew had been murdered.

The investigation deepened further when it was revealed that officers in our local law enforcement may have been involved in the boy’s deaths. It was also revealed that the boys had possibly stumbled upon a “drug drop” and they were killed because of what they saw. As the Ives and Henry families continued to search for answers, a world of underground activities of drugs, money, crooked politicians and crooked law enforcement emerged. That “drug drop” accusation was linked to a notorious drug lord named Barry Seals, who had brought his drug smuggling ring from Louisiana and set it up in Mena, Arkansas. Barry Seals used The Mena Airport to run his drug smuggling operation. It was also then, that I was forced to come to terms with the fact that a long time family friend, Danny Harmon, may have also been involved with this sick story. It was very hard for me and my mother to swallow that our friend, who we loved and adored, may have turned into a crook and possibly may be the leader of the attempted cover-up of this sad story. We juggled back and forth with hurt and disbelief. We asked each other, “Danny is such a good man, how could he possibly be involved in something as horrible as this?”

As if this wasn’t enough to deal with, another tragedy struck. In May of 1988 my ex-boyfriend, Keith Coney, was killed in a motorcycle wreck. He was apparently running from an attacker, with his throat slit, when he ran his motorcycle into the back of a semi trailer rig. His death was ruled as a “traffic accident” and no autopsy was performed. Nothing was thought much of Keith Coney’s death until it was revealed that Keith was on a list of witnesses to testify in front of a grand jury that had formed to look into the deaths of Kevin and Don. As it turned out, Keith had told his mom, Betty, that he knew things about Kevin and Don’s murder. He would not tell her what he knew; just that he did know things and that he was being followed. However, Keith did not know who was following him. He told his mom he was afraid for his life and obviously he had good reason to be. Keith was also good friends with Kevin and Don and it was believed that he may have been in the woods with Kevin and Don that night.

I was very distraught over Keith’s death. This whole mess was starting to become very personal to me. Someone I had known casually had been murdered and now someone who I had loved dearly had been murdered. “What the hell is happening to my friends, and why, God, is this happening?” I screamed aloud. I struggled to make sense of it. I got in touch with Betty, Keith’s mom, and we spoke intensely about it all. Betty was also very distraught over her son’s death and found comfort in talking to someone she trusted about it and someone who cared about her and her son. No one really seemed to care much about Keith’s death. A local police officer, Kathy Carty, was even quoted as saying, “Keith is what we in law enforcement call a dirtball. The world is a better place without him and I am not sorry that he is dead!” How cruel could someone be? Just because Keith had some run-ins with the law and Kathy didn’t like him much, it was a really nasty thing to say about someone’s murdered child! Keith did not deserve to be murdered at the hands of someone else and Kathy’s comments on his death were just plain wrong and unprofessional! However, the madness was just beginning. There was more tragedy and sadness to come to my friends.

Following the deaths of Kevin, Don and Keith, a string of murders in Saline County began. Keith Makaskle, an informant in the case, was found dead in his garage. He had been stabbed 113 times. Greg Collins, a friend of Keith Coney’s, was found shot to death soon after Keith Makaskle. Not long after that, Boonie Bearden, another friend of Keith Coney’s, turned up missing and was presumed dead. Things in Saline County were getting absolutely crazy. Three friends, all who were to be witnesses for the grand jury were now dead, an informant in the case was now dead and no one had any answers. People around town were asking each other, “What in God’s name is going on in Saline County? People are dropping off like flies around here and no one has any answers, except that they are all friends and their deaths may be connected to the deaths of these two boys on the railroad tracks.” However, the killing spree in our town was still not over.

This story darkened even further in April of 1989 when Jeff Rhoades, A friend of mine in high school, was reported missing and then found dead. Jeff’s body was found burned in a local landfill after being shot twice in the head. An investigation into Jeff’s death found that Jeff had told his father he had information about Keith Makaskle’s murder. He was in fear of his life and he wanted to get out of town. Jeff asked his dad if he could come to Houston and stay with him. However, he didn’t get that chance. A man named Frank Pilcher was arrested and convicted for killing Jeff after his girlfriend told police what he had done. Marissa, Frank’s girlfriend, also told police that Jeff was working for a man named Ron Ketleson selling cocaine. Ron Ketleson was the father of Jordan and Aaron Ketleson, two other friends of mine.

Jordan Ketleson was also the next friend of mine to turn up dead. He was found shot to death in his truck and his death was ruled a suicide. Jordan was believed to be involved in Keith Makaskle’s murder. Information was also turned up that Ron, Jordan’s dad, had orchestrated the murder of Jeff Rhoades. By now, this demented and sad story had become really personal to me. My friends were being murdered left and right and a family friend may have possibly covered up their murders. Feelings of hurt, disbelief, fear, emptiness, and anger filled my days. This was not a murder mystery movie I was watching at our local movie theater nor was it a crazy Steven King novel I was reading. It was real! Charles Manson had not escaped from prison and went on another killing spree. We had our own serial killer on the loose right here at home! A world of drug lords, dirty money, crooked politicians, corrupt police officers and the murdering of witnesses to crooked dealings had become real. I thought this kind of thing only existed in books and movies. I was a young, gullible, sheltered and naïve girl and I was forced to see the evilness that exists out there in the world. I wondered how such dirty, selfish, sick and demented evilness could overtake the lives of the simple everyday people I knew. Not only had I lost friends and the parents of these kids lost their children, we were all slapped with the harsh reality that we could not trust our local law enforcement, our local politicians or our local government. The people who were supposed to protect us were hurting us. Imagine the hurt and anger we all felt. Imagine the hell these families and I were going through. It was our worst nightmare come true and nothing was being done about it!

To this day, all of these murders are still unsolved, except for Jeff’s murder. I have dealt with a lot of pain and anger through all of this, as have the families of these children over the years. My life has changed because of these tragic events. My eyes are now open and I am not as naïve as I once was. I look at the world through a different pair of eyes now seeing it as a cruel place to exist in. These tragedies and the circumstances surrounding them have taught me to not be so trusting of people, to be on guard at all times and that evilness and selfishness can take over the life of a good honest person. I don’t understand it all and I don’t understand why, but it is a harsh reality to me now. I do know that God knew we weren’t perfect and that is why he died on the cross; to save us from our sins. I only hope the people responsible for killing my friends will understand the sins they have committed and ask God for forgiveness for what they have done. As for the families of these murdered children, I hope that justice will be served one day in the eyes of the law also.