Ortons crime blog: Don Henry and Kevin Ives

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Don Henry and Kevin Ives

There are a lot of unsolved mysteries that struck me and stuck in my head when I was younger. This is another one. It is old and probably will never be solved. It occurred in 1987 when 2 boys who were best friends had their bodies found on railway tracks.

On August 23rd, 1987 shortly after midnight Don Henry(16) and Kevin Ives(17) decided to go out night hunting. This was in Bryant, Arkansas near Don's house. At around 4am a train was barrelling down the tracks on its way to Little Rock. The conductor noticed 2 bodies lying on the railway tracks. The bodies were covered up with a tarp with Don's rifle beside them. The horn on the train blew numerous times with no movement from the bodies. The train tried to stop in time but there was little it could do. It ran over the boys.
A medical examiner said that the boys had smoked alot of pot that night. Which at the time was said to be 20 joints. But later on determined to be only 1 between the 2 of them. When the parents tried to keep asking the police they felt as if the police were hiding something. There was also evidence that one of the boys was already dead when they were on the tracks. Although at first the incident was chalked up to an accident. After a year a grand jury reversed the ruling from accidental death to probable homicide. It was also determined later that Don was stabbed before he was put on the tracks then it went up to definite homicide.

There are definitely more questions than answers in this case. A lot of theories have came up as to what happened to the boys. A week before the boys were hit by the train a man wearing military fatigue was spotted roaming around in the area of the tracks. He arose suspicion and a police officer approached him to talk to him and got shots fired on him. When they went to locate GI Joe he was no where to be found and was never identified.
Another theory is that the boys stumbled upon a drug operation in the woods. That area then just like now was known to have meth labs in it. The boys death could of been so that they wouldn't talk.
Another man came forward and said that on the night of the murders he seen 2 police officers beating 2 boys in a store parking lot. It is not known if the boys were Don and Kevin.
In 2018 a man named Billy Jack Haynes came forward and claimed that he witnessed the murders. Which is probably not a credible lead. He is a former wrestler and claims that it was a cover up for a cocaine smuggling ring. It involved a corrupt Arkansas Politician. Haynes claimed that he never helped in the killing of the boys, but helped move their bodies to the tracks. Haynes though has been known to give false confessions about crimes in the past. The politician could of been Bill Clinton. Or his husband Hilary.
This case has never been solved. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a mixture of the boys coming across a drug lab that the police ran. The conductor said that he had seen the boys in a tarp(which was never found) the police said there was never a tarp. The conductor then said that would be like questioning the boys on the tracks.