At 4 a.m. on August 23, 1987, a 75-car Union Pacific train, over a mile long, was traveling through Saline County, Arkansas, on its way to Little Rock when the crew spotted something alarming on the tracks. Lying motionless in their path, about 300 feet ahead, were the bodies of two teenage boys, Kevin Ives and Don Henry, partially covered by a green tarp. The train’s crew reacted immediately, but with no time to stop, the locomotive struck the boys. This tragic event would ignite an investigation fraught with obstruction, conspiracy, and murder—one that would ultimately reach the highest levels of the U.S. government.

From the start, the investigation was plagued by negligence and subterfuge. Despite the obvious red flags, the Saline County Sheriff insisted on treating the scene as an accident rather than a homicide. Evidence collection was haphazard—critical items were overlooked, including one of Kevin Ives’s feet, which remained on the tracks for days until a family member found it. Other key pieces of evidence, such as the green tarp and Don Henry’s .22 rifle (a potential murder weapon), were never recovered, despite eyewitness accounts and video footage confirming their presence. EMTs at the scene observed blood patterns and injuries suggesting the boys were already dead before the train struck them, yet their statements were conspicuously absent from the official report.  

The investigation was further clouded by the autopsy conducted by Arkansas State Medical Examiner Fahmy Malak. Malak concluded that the boys had smoked at least 20 marijuana joints before falling asleep on the tracks in a “psychedelic coma.” He ruled their deaths accidental, a finding that was immediately met with skepticism by the victims’ families and anyone with even a basic understanding of marijuana’s effects. Malak, however, had a long history of bizarre and questionable autopsy conclusions—but more on that later.

Kevin and Don’s families, led by Linda Ives, flatly rejected the official ruling and fought relentlessly to have the case reopened. After a hard-fought battle with local authorities, they succeeded in convening a grand jury and securing an independent medical examiner for a second autopsy. This time, the findings left no doubt—one boy had suffered a crushed skull, while the other had been stabbed multiple times in the back. The evidence was undeniable: Kevin and Don had been murdered before their bodies were placed on the tracks. The grand jury concurred, reclassifying the case from an accidental death to a probable homicide.

At this critical juncture, Judge John Cole made a fateful decision—he appointed attorney Dan Harmon as Special Prosecutor, with Richard Garrett as his assistant. Spoiler alert: these are the bad guys.

Harmon and Garrett assured Linda Ives they would stop at nothing to find the killers, but as months dragged on, their investigation led nowhere. Enter Unsolved Mysteries. On October 12, 1988, the show aired a segment on the deaths of Kevin Ives and Don Henry, urging witnesses to reach out to Garrett via the Saline County Sheriff’s Department. Though well-intentioned, the broadcast set off a deadly chain of events.

According to a heavily redacted FBI file from a 1993 investigation, witnesses who called Garrett’s tip line were threatened and told to remain silent. By the time Unsolved Mysteries aired, one witness, Keith Coney, had already been killed. Within six months of the broadcast, five more witnesses were dead—all of whom had either spoken with Harmon and Garrett or were scheduled to testify before the grand jury. Among them was Keith McKaskle, who, shortly after meeting with Garrett, realized he had made a mistake. Convinced his life was in danger, he made funeral arrangements in advance. He was soon found stabbed 113 times.

The body count was rising.

So what did these witnesses see? Over the years, a fragmented yet chilling timeline of August 23, 1987, has been painstakingly reconstructed from buried witness testimonies, misfiled documents, and heavily redacted FBI files. Though incomplete, the pieces that have surfaced paint a disturbing picture of what transpired that night.

That night, Kevin and Don had been “spotlighting” deer, using Kevin’s .22 rifle. Around 2 a.m., while walking along the train tracks, they encountered a group of five individuals, including Dan Harmon, Keith McKaskle, Sharlene Wilson (more on her later), and at least two others. A confrontation ensued, and at least one shot was fired—possibly from Don Henry’s .22. The boys ran.

Shortly after, they came across Keith Coney, who was riding his motorcycle. The three talked about what had just happened while walking toward a convenience store. At that moment, two off-duty police officers—Kirk Lane and Jay Campbell—pulled up in an unmarked car and detained Kevin and Don. Keith, sensing danger, fled on his motorcycle.

One of the officers, likely Campbell, struck Kevin in the back of the head with the butt of the .22, knocking him unconscious. The boys were then loaded into the officers’ car and driven back to the tracks, where they were met by Harmon and the others. Though reports vary, Kevin likely succumbed to his head injury. It was decided Don had to die as well. He was stabbed multiple times in the back.

The killers placed the bodies on the tracks and covered them with a tarp, assuming the train would pass over without noticing. However, the tarp partially came loose, exposing the bodies. The train crew spotted them, stopped, and called the authorities.

The obvious question remains—what did Kevin and Don see that night that sealed their fate?

The answer is almost unbelievable. The boys had unknowingly stumbled upon a massive shipment of cocaine being collected from the tracks—a drug drop made by a low-flying aircraft. The operation was protected by local law enforcement and officials, including Dan Harmon.

To fully grasp the scope of this drug operation, we need to take a brief detour and introduce a man named Barry Seal.

Barry Seal

Barry Seal was an infamous pilot who smuggled cocaine for the Medellín Cartel in the early 1980s. His fleet of aircraft operated out of Mena, Arkansas, just miles from Bryant in Saline County. Around 1983, Seal became a DEA informant and was later recruited by the CIA to fly weapons and drugs in what became known as the Iran-Contra Affair. At the time, Mena Airport fell under the jurisdiction of U.S. Attorney Asa Hutchinson—who later became the governor of Arkansas.

When the Iran-Contra scandal broke, Seal was no longer useful to the CIA or DEA. In 1986, he was assassinated by Medellín Cartel operatives while being conspicuously housed in a public work-release program. Yet, despite his death, the Mena drug operation continued to thrive in his absence and was active at the time of Kevin and Don’s murders.

Continued Here 

 

 

Jason Roberts is a Seattle-based author noted for his acclaimed western horror series The Dead Wind Trilogy as well as other works of cosmic horror infused with historical fiction. His web-based series, Dark Distractions examines paranormal mysteries, unexplained phenomena, and all things strange.