Boys on the Tracks /// Part 1 /// 93 | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] foreign [Music] garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host
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foreign by all accounts the engineer did a masterful job of bringing his train to a
stop it had taken a screaming screeching half mile by the time the engine had shuttered to
a standstill conductor Jerry Tomlin was on the radio notifying an approaching train on a parallel track to stop
because some boys had been run over he had also called the dispatcher have you got injuries to dispatcher asks
no Tomlin said we've got death I'm sure we've got death they passed under us has to be dead
[Music] [Music] foreign August 23 1987. this is a Sunday in Arkansas there's a train traveling north from
Texarkana this train is about a mile long pulling mostly Freight but some empty cars as well the Train's headlight
is set to the bright position the crew would later say that it was particularly dark that night
the trains engineer this is Steven shoyer and the conductor Jerry Tomlin noticed a dark spot on the tracks now
any debris on the tracks of course is a big concern they can see a flash of light from this
dark spot the Train's headlights beam it must have hit something metal or something that reflected the light back
to them when the train was approximately a hundred feet away from the dark spot engineer shoyer yelled out oh my God and
he hit the whistle in the emergency brake at the same time this is because they could tell that there were two
young men laying on the tracks between the rails they could also tell that there was a gun lying next to them they
could tell that there was something covering the boys from their waist to their knees both boys were between the
rails with their heads up against the West Rail and their feet over the East rail both were right beside each other
and their arms and hands were at their sides their heads facing straight up and they didn't move at all the train was
traveling approximately 55 miles an hour this would only give the crew just seconds to respond before running over
the boys as we had said they hit the emergency brake but with the weight and the speed of the train this is going to
take some time to bring this metal monster to a stop as they are breaking the steel wheels are they're screaming
on the steel tracks the train cars vibrate the tracks begin to vibrate as well the whistles blowing and still the
boys do not jerk they do not flinch they do not move a muscle now shoyer couldn't
tell what the object was that was covering the boys but the other two men on the train Tomlin and this other guy
his last name is Delamar both said that this item that was covering the boys from waist to knee was a tarp a pale
green tarp I believe one of the men actually said that it looked like a boat cover and they stated that the gun was
clearly a rifle the barrel was near one of the boys's head and the stock was mostly underneath the tarp the man
watched as the bodies disappeared under the Train the men heard the train hit the boys one of the men explained that
what he was used to on occasion the train would hit a dog and he said that you would hear like a thud and then you
would hear rocks flying because if it was something that was under the train then the train was scooting the object
along with the boys and with the gun the men felt the impact and they said it was
very one two three you could you could feel the hit of the first boy second boy and then the gun it's hard to imagine
what's going through these guys heads as they're hitting the bodies yeah it's I mean it's complete nightmare when the
train hits an object one of two things usually happen so there is a scoop on the front of this train that the men
called a cow catcher I believe this is a commonly used term so either the cow catcher will hit the item and toss the
object violently aside or it gets sucked up under the train right and this is what happened here and the two boys's
legs were laying on the track so what happened was the feet were actually severed by the train yes severed from
the legs and the heads and the torsos were between the tracks so the train would have cleared the bodies and then
rolled them under the train this is what the three men on board had heard so armed with flashlights the men get off
of the train and they went looking for what they had hit about 35 cars back they located the first of many pieces
that they would find right train cars yeah they spotted some dismembered toes the biggest body part that they found
was the chest and head of the second boy the first boy was he was much more chopped up
the police had started to arrive on the scene and they basically found parts of the gun and the body scattered along a
quarter mile of the tracks one thing the crew members noticed very quickly was that there was
a lot less blood than any of them had expected to see and the blood that they did see and find it was dark it wasn't
it wasn't red it was a purplish color unlike you said they have experience with you know hitting the Train the
train hitting a dog or a cow or a deer or something of that nature yeah and in in this area of the country too these
are guys that were familiar with hunting um so they they knew kind of what to expect unfortunately in this situation
that's why they were so freaked out was they knew what they were expecting to see and they were terrified going back
there looking for that well yeah because it's on a whole different level I mean it's one thing to hit a deer but to hit
two teenage boys the police were there at 4 40 a.m this is just about 13 minutes after the crew
had reported the incident this fell to the jurisdiction of the Saline County Sheriff's Office
on the scene we have Deputy Chuck talent and Lieutenant Ray Richmond who was the
head of the Department's criminal investigation division after checking out the scene the
officers decided that they were investigating either an accident or suicide the crew working the train
immediately disagreed with the officers they knew that of course accidents certainly do happen around trains and
suicides do as well but the troubling thing here is that the men saw neither boy move at all right if if it were a
suicide they said they might be able to be talked into agreeing that one person could Brave through the terrifying
situation of the train approaching them but none of the men would agree that two
people could lay there and not flinch or not move a muscle as the train got closer and closer right which I I think
I agree with them on uh I just think that's a really hard thing to even speculate also at the scene was state
trooper Wayne lainhart of the Arkansas State Police now lanehart was concerned by what he saw at the scene but let's
keep in mind he this is not his jurisdiction right this is the jurisdiction of the sheriff's office so
he is at their mercy so I'm assuming that it was a the call was made and he was just in close proximity so he then
showed up to see if they needed any assistance yeah everybody was responding to this call so this is not his case he
is pretty much just a spectator at this point but the thing that bothered him the most was the sheriff deputy's
disinterest and the possibility of a murder according to Leonard's training any unnatural death should be
investigative first as a possible homicide so evidence can be preserved and the most serious possibilities
eliminated before less serious ones are considered Leonard after having talked with the
crew members told the deputies that he doubted the deaths were an accident right another cause for concern was the
observations made by the emergency medical technicians arriving on the scene right the EMTs yeah they both said
that the bodies looked more like mannequins because there was so little blood and at the impact site the blood
that they found was really dark in color more purple than a red they didn't see any bright blood and this led them to
believe that the blood that they were seeing was not fresh who were the two boys on the tracks that
night and why were they there the boys were 17 year old Kevin Ives and 16 year old Don Henry and I know it's 1987 and
there wasn't a lot of law enforcement didn't crack down on curfew as often but what is a 16 and 17 year old boy doing
out by these train tracks I mean it's Saturday they're hanging out Saturday and then
this happens at 4 00 a.m on Sunday yeah so it was the weekend yep well this is a
rural area um so uh you don't see curfews really enforced a whole lot out in these parts
but basically the boys were staying the night at Don Henry's home uh and they they got there around 12 15 a.m uh don
lives with his parents Curtis and his stepmother Marvel Henry now the two were supposed to be staying the night at
Don's house they had known each other about six months they have become quick friends hanging out together very often
this was the summer time nearing the start of another school year so they were you know the two of them were
trying to make the most of their summer what what they had left right uh Kevin had stayed at Don's Place once or twice
before but Kevin's mother Linda was not real excited about Kevin staying there that night in fact she'd originally said
no to the request because last time he had stayed there she didn't approve of what went down on that occasion Don's
father had called Linda the morning after and asked if the boys were at her house right and she says she says no you
know they they were supposed to be at at your place I don't I don't know what happened here right so they did a
Switcheroo well what it turns out that what happened was that at some point Don had gotten an argument with his father
Curtis uh and then after the argument the two boys went and decided to stay at another friend's house that night
um so Curtis maybe thought that they went back to Kevin's and it turns out that that was not not the case it was
very embarrassing when you have a friend over and you get an argument with your parents that's always like you're like
um I'm really sorry that my mom's being a big old bee right now well I'm sure Kevin's parents would have wished that
they would have returned to their place rather than just going through someone else yeah this unscripted place that
they ended up um so of course Linda was reluctant to let Kevin go over there on this occasion
but you know how it goes teenagers talk their parents into things so on that night the two had been hanging out with
some friends they were told to be home by midnight or 12 30 at the latest so once they were back at Don's place they
had asked Don's father Curtis if they could go out hunting this is spotlighting which is an illegal form of
hunting plus I wouldn't think that anything would be in season at that time of year now Don was an avid Hunter so so
he was you know this activity sounds a bit strange to me but I get the impression that this could have been a
common thing here for him plus it doesn't sound to me as if Don's parents or at least Don's father Curtis was the
strictest of parents right uh one some people remember what their childhood was like when when it's summertime and they
think you know some parents get a little more loose in the summertime and I think
that's okay well I used to be a you know have to be in by a certain time but in the summertime a lot of times my parents
would let me pitch a tent in the backyard you know and have somebody stay over so really I wasn't totally under
their watchful eye but spotlighting is where you go out with flashlights and a gun and when you come across some
unfortunate animal and I don't know what they were hunting for or maybe if they were just looking for any type of
creature out there but basically you you shine your flashlight on the animal and
the light beam will pretty much lock up the animal like the old saying frees up like a deer in the Headlights well this
makes the animal a very easy target so they asked Curtis if they can go out spotlighting and he says yes and that is
the last time that the boys are known to be seen alive yeah last time that they're known to be seen Alive by any
parents or close family members this story which has not been covered often has so many twists and turns and I dare
say maybe one of the most interesting cases Most Fascinating cases with as many twists that you will ever hear in a
case yeah it it it's crazy it starts off as a small town case and it could be I mean it could be huge well it starts out
as a as a small town case that people think it's an accident or a suicide the next morning Curtis the father he gets
up around 5 a.m and he wakes up his wife Marvel saying that that Dawn should have
been home by now but wasn't and he tells her that he really thinks that something
is wrong here Curtis goes out looking for the boys he knew where the boys were going to go hunt so he headed to the
woods near the train tracks he's out driving around looking for Don and Kevin and while he's out there he passes a uh
deputy and he slows down and he stops and he asks the deputy if they had seen two teenagers out there running around
the deputy asked who the man was looking for and Curtis knowing that the boys were out hunting illegally he decided
that he didn't want to name any names right you know so Curtis is going to continue on looking for the boys the
officer also didn't say that they had found two boys on the train tracks when when Curtis had stopped to talk to him
right after driving around for a few hours Curtis went home and he called Linda and he asked her if the boys were
at her place and of course now she's thinking oh no not again this happened last time and why the hell can't this
other parent keep the kids at his house right uh she asked if there was an argument uh he says no there was nothing
like that that the boys had simply went out hunting and they must have stayed out all night uh he told Linda not to
worry because Don had hunted often uh he was very responsible with a firearm and
he knew the woods better than anyone Linda was beginning to get quite worried about Kevin though well and like we said
was 16 and 17 year old and you have your little stomping grounds so it seems like
Don one of Don's stomping grounds was these Woods and you know and and back when I was uh probably you know
elementary school and middle school there was Woods by my house and if you took it you know if a parent came back
looking for a kid they couldn't find their way around right but but the kids knew how to get through every inch of
that woods around noon the phone rang again and it was Curtis uh Linda could tell by his voice that this call was
much different than the last call he says get over here quick they've been shot and tied to the railroad tracks and
they've been run over by the train now this might sound a little weird here but Linda of course she she's in shock
by what she has just heard yeah obviously but she she says that she was actually somewhat relieved once she had
a chance to kind of process what Curtis had said uh Linda was worried that the boys could have been in a car wreck you
know that they were both young drivers at this time they both owned fast cars Don had a firebird and Kevin had a
Camaro right uh 1987. but yeah but she said what Curtis had told her sounded so absurd that it couldn't have possibly
happened that it couldn't be the truth right right so Linda drives over to Curtis Curtis Henry's home
when she pulled up to the place she sees Kevin's car at the end of the driveway and this makes her feel very good uh
she's immediately thinking that Kevin had returned to the Henry's and nobody was in a car wreck and you know all is
good again right maybe maybe something happened and maybe they were on these tracks but they're okay now well that
feeling quickly left her as she's getting out of the car a deputy this is Deputy Talent came out from the house
and he asked her to come inside so we go here from from a lot of relief to very worried Curtis right in front of
the officer tells Linda that a neighbor had told him that the boys had been shot
they had been tied to the tracks and they've been run over by the train now the police officer he states that the
boys yes there there had been two boys that had been run over by a train now these boys had not been positively
identified yet and they were going to be checking dental records at the crime lab
to figure out who these boys were right but you have no whereabouts of your two of these two teenage boys that you know
that they went out at night you know what area they went at yeah you know they went in the woods down by the
train tracks right and you now and they didn't come home and their vehicles are at your house so
this is this is very Troublesome well Deputy Talent he asked Linda for a description of what Kevin was wearing
the last time that she had seen him um she describes this and he does say that that fit with the items that they
had found at the tracks um what led the officers to Curtis Henry's door they had found a camouflage
baseball cap with the with a Little Rock electric logo on it this is a the electric company in the area right now
Curtis was a superintendent with that company and Don had had one of those hats Don wanted to become an electrician
uh just like his father after graduating from high school and that summer he had
actually kind of Taken Don under his wing a little bit and would bring him into work with him and you know kind of
show him the ropes a little bit to see if this was something he actually wanted to do after graduating high school so
unfortunately this is a this is a hat that he knew that Don would have been wearing that night right so the writing
is pretty much on the wall yeah and unfortunately the boys would soon later be positively identified as the two boys
who had been run over by the train that night right that being Don hen me and Kevin Ives now there are still plenty of
more weird things about that night that we haven't even got to yet the first strange thing here is remember
that at the beginning of the show we had said that the Train's conductor had called another train that was passing on
a parallel track and he called them telling them to stop because they had just run over some boys
well once the officers had arrived and they began scoping out the scene the sheriffs told the other train that it
could then continue on well this is before collecting some of the remains or looking for potential evidence of a
crime here right you know nothing stirs up a crime scene area like a giant train
passing through right next the crew had said that they and this is all three of the crew members they all got the same
feeling that the Sheriff's Office the the officers that were on the scene they said that they didn't even believe that
any of them were looking for any clues as to what had happened first off they were obviously looking at this thing
like it was an accident or a double suicide and not only that but the officers were overheard being told hey
treat this as a traffic accident yeah and I'm guessing that this might have been the extent of their expertise you
know they were probably all familiar with traffic fatalities but not very familiar with you know potential double
double murder scene and probably not as seen as complicated as this one this next bit is is extremely strange in
my mind regarding the sheriffs that night uh it's like they were trying to pull the old Jedi mind trick on the
train crew after listening to each of the crew members statements the deputy and the lieutenant told the crew members
that they had all been mistaken that there was no tarp covering the boys do I do not there is no trash yeah they they
simply told the guys that they were confused by how dark it had been that night and that there was simply no tarp
um the next thing that the sheriffs did was confusing too as well because they also seem to doubt the men's statements
that there was a gun present with the boys right and we know from Curtis from Don's father that they were out there to
hunt so makes a lot of sense that there would be a gun beside the boys right right and we and we know that but but
the officers at the scene they don't know any of that information yet but it's very strange here Captain why would
they when you take the the train crew statements uh and you then you're going to go out and look at the scene and and
unfortunately have this terrible job of collecting things there why would you have any reason to doubt them without
walking the scene yet why why would you even say that there was no tarp why would you say that there's no gun
um I don't even know why you would even question that when you just take their statements and not even make any
observations of your own until you've walked the scene well and as you're walking the scene maybe they're just
having a hard time finding these items so therefore while I can't find it so maybe you are mistaken I mean I I don't
think all that stuff isn't a fear you know nefarious I think some of it is just simply well maybe you know it was
super dark you have this bright light come in from your train and maybe you didn't see exactly what you think you
saw I I can agree with that I can agree with that the train is traveling very fast it's very dark out that night these
men are trained though to spot things on the tracks um that is one thing that they do you
know right but what what a law enforcement should do is just take the statement and if the statement is a
little off that's okay that is the statement from that individual not a statement that you guys made in a joint
effort right right and and don't react to those statements until you have an opportunity to check out the scene and
collect evidence to you know because they're probably walking in there thinking this was an accident or this
was a suicide it's the only things that seem to make sense here um but it's it's weird that they have
this kind of preconceived notion before even really collecting evidence yeah but
we see this time and time again with law enforcement it's you create a narrative
and then you make that evidence fit your narrative instead of collecting the evidence and collecting the statements
and letting that create your narrative yeah and while they're walking the scene with the crew members uh they even State
several times you know where so where is this alleged gun where where is this so-called gun that you guys saw we have
law enforcement creating a narrative now we need to do autopsy on this bodies to
actually figure out you know that's going to point us in a direction too and this is where the first twist in this
story takes place we'll get to that right after this quick beer break foreign [Music]
[Music] [Music] we're back cheers mates yeah we have two boys that are found dead on the train
tracks and we do have autopsies that we need to get to but I real quickly I want
to go through a couple more things about that night before we get to those autopsies we had talked about the gun
you know that the the officers refused to believe the crew statement that there was a gun president the present that
they had seen one right and like we said before Curtis uh Henry Don Henry's father said they went out hunting and
while they're searching the crime scene they start referring to this gun as the alleged gun or the so-called gun it was
not until the Sheriff's Office had actually recovered pieces of a shattered 22 rifle with that they would believe
that there was even a gun present right so they did recover shattered pieces of a 22 rifle uh they there were no bullets
in it at the time there was no tarp found um I could see a tarp just getting ripped to shred threads uh you know if
it's covering the boys well possibly but you also have the other train that just
they let go and I could totally see a a tarp being trapped into a train somehow yeah and when it gets pulled along
you're exactly right and and not only that they're not even looking for a tarp they're refusing to believe that it it
exists right right but so as they're collecting evidence they they weren't looking for these things and these
things were scattered for about a quarter mile of track and there was also other items that were found left at the
track as well so the boys were the train incident took place on a Sunday well Monday morning comes and the deaths are
reported in the news and in the papers so people start going down to the tracks to check out the scene one group that
went down there they found I like to call those people Whiskers Whiskers because they're curious like a cat well
these people uh be careful what you wish for they went down to the track this one
group and they found a severed foot in the gravel that was missed by the sheriff's department right so you don't
believe that there is a gun you don't believe that there's a tarp you find evidence of the gun and then you'd leave
a foot behind yeah right I mean and like we said some of the police officers that were at
the scene at the time said look you have to assume that this is a homicide scene
and you need to do your due diligence so therefore we can get some answers and this is direct evidence to point that
they said well this is a suicide or accident case shut well in fact it became it became
well-known knowledge that the sheriff's investigators never even roped off the scene and some other people recovered
parts of the gun from that scene that the Sheriff's Office had missed well congratulations when they returned Don's
clothing to the Henry's his stepmother found a small bag of pot in his pocket so the officers had missed this entirely
and two days after the boys death the sheriffs they they offer a statement saying hey we haven't ruled out anything
except for Foul Play We ruled that out yeah in review of the investigation it was learned that the Sheriff's Office
spent about a week on the investigation this mostly consisted of interviews with
friends and classmates of the two boys most of these interviews contained the same two questions well heck most of
these interviews only consisted of two questions one how much drugs did the boys use and two were they suicidal
right and this is what makes me go Bonkers man yeah it's it's again like we said they are they have a theory and
then they're trying to create the narrative and we see this time and time again it's it's just it's utter Malarkey
yeah and usually even in an accidental death when they are an invest when they're investigating it they will
typically ask friends and relatives well do you know anybody that would have wanted to hurt this person right or why
and you know and this is not even a question that is posed to most of these people right but you're asking people
the same question I are they suicidal how much drugs did they use and then it creates the story amongst the people
that well that must be what happened here right and then and then obviously think about the family why would you be
why would you tell your parents why one why would you spend the night with anybody and then why would you decide to
oh well let's just go hunting and uh let's now let's just lay down on the tracks and again like you said you'd
have to have I mean you'd have to have the balls nerves of Steel Man to lay there on that track and let that happen
yeah well this story obviously very quickly became Big Time news all across the state of Arkansas Not only was the story
a parent's worst nightmare but it was a strange and horrible story all at the same time of course the rumor mill ran
wild and there were a lot of theories regarding the deaths being traded around dinner tables dinners at local bars and
you know all over the state of Arkansas one of the things that I find a little creepy about this and our longtime
listeners would know we we covered the Phantom killer also known as the Texarkana murders and and having the
train come from Texarkana adds a little bit to the creep factor for me the Sheriff's Office officially
seemed to be describing the deaths as an apparent accident but would not give it
that official title yet stating that the official cause of death would have to come from the State medical examiner's
office unfortunately when the deputies were speaking with the families they suggested that suicide was a more likely
explanation right it can coming up with your own narrative well in both sets of parents disagreed with this thought from
the beginning that you know there was no evidence that the boys were suicidal there was some evidence that the boys
had been using drugs one 1.9 grams of marijuana was found in the pocket of Kevin's genes right and not always is
there signs of somebody struggling with you know Suicidal Thoughts here's another strange thing to this story
though captain that is often not reported Kevin's father Larry Ives he was an engineer for the railroad the rap
out that the train was on that passed over the boys that route just months before
it was his route and it was just pure coincidence that that route was no longer Larry's or he
would have been driving the train that night right so he would have he would have been engineering the train that
basically you know ran over his own son the parents obviously were devastated by
the tragedy but they were also disappointed in the Sheriff's Office and how they handled this incident they were
anxiously awaiting the medical examiner's ruling on the cause of deaths and they wanted answers obviously a week
after the funerals the medical examiner had finished his report in a meeting with the parents was scheduled
when the parents arrived they were first met in the parking lot by officers from
the Sheriff's office there was also an officer from the Arkansas State Police there as well this was really good news
to the parents as they had been requesting multiple times in this short time period that the case be transferred
to the state police but that had not been done uh Kevin's parents brought a potential useful item with them Larry
and some of his friends went to the site where the boys had died when when they were there they found a large piece of
cardboard the piece was large enough that it could have been used to drag two bodies on it there was also a stain on
it and that stain could have been blood right Larry knew that the Sheriff's Office didn't have the technology or the
capability to properly analyze it so he wanted to bring it directly to the medical examiner's office in the parking
lot he showed the piece of cardboard to the state police officer and he turns it
over to him there we have a 16 and 17 year old and obviously they're just teenagers but they're becoming young men
and you know you have a lot of growth spurts at those times so we're talking about two big individuals that you know
now it's very possible if there was Foul Play that they were they were attacked on the train tracks because we know
that's where they're at but if there were attacks somewhere else and they used this piece of cardboard anybody
that knows it's like a sled push or something like in weightlifting yeah you can put on a ton of weight but because
it's on on a different surface you can drag that surface you know I mean most people can't pick up a couch but people
can push it around their living room yeah and unfortunately this possible piece of evidence
um it's not seen again after this situation he the father gives it to the state officer and he's told that it's
going to get where it needs to go to be examined and that just simply doesn't happen right and again the the my issue
is you'd have to test this to one find out if it was blood if there was blood then we can assume that this was used to
maybe transport the bodies but here's the other thing about it this is the thing that frustrates me is whoever used
if that was used to transport the bodies then there's a good likelihood that there was fingerprints on there right
right and and that's what frustrates me when the parents went inside to meet the
medical examiner this is Fami Malik is his name uh they were and his face looks exactly like the way his name sounds
okay uh but for me well the his face is very farmy when the parents first met Malik they found him to be weird when
they first arrived Malik took polaroid pictures of each parent and had asked each of them to sign forms so it was
official as to who was in attendance at this meeting Oh I thought you're going to say he took pictures he took polaroid
pictures of him then he asked him to shake it like a Polaroid picture Malik then passed out copies of His official
ruling the statement read something like this at 4 25 a.m August 23 1987 Kevin Ives 17 and Don Henry 16 were
unconscious in a deep sleep on the railroad tracks under the Psychedelic influence of THC marijuana right when a
trained passed over them causing their accidental deaths the parents began questioning Dr Malik
not really his ruling but they wanted more information because none of them had ever heard of people passing out
from THC right according to the parents Malik seemed very irritated at the additional questions I think that he
thought that they would simply hear his final ruling accept it and then leave this is very surprising to me that he
would not have expected questions or that he would have seemed irritated at the additional questions given his
amount of experience in these matters you know no one handles a sudden death well and loved ones are always left with
a lot of questions when someone suddenly dies especially if it's your kids and especially if the circumstances
surrounding those deaths are abnormal this guy has the bedside manner of a wolverine he basically states that
marijuana levels in the boys were extremely High drawing a line on a chalkboard he writes a large Five Below
the line and a 100 above it pointing to the 100 he says this is how stoned they were well you know old Captain Fami over
here I think part of his annoyance is that you know he's an expert in his mind and
he hears my findings and kind of how dare you question me yeah well of course the parents are still confused as the
doctor has not clearly explained this very well right uh when they ask him what kind of measurement is that Malik
snaps back and says it's units the parents wanted this explained to them in easier terms because marijuana was not
something they were familiar with they didn't know if passing out was possible or likely or or really what
they wanted to know how much pot the kids would have had to have smoked to achieve these high levels of THC Malik
never really answers that particular question right the more the parents questioned him or push him for
reasonable answers the more the doctor gets upset with them and at some point he holds up a large envelope stating
that inside are the autopsy photos and in these photos is the proof that you are looking for
well the parents of course they they don't want to see these photos at all right and they told him that they didn't
want to see these photos yeah I don't know what parent would want to see that yeah they wanted toxicology results and
Malik insisted that they see the photos as crazy as this whole story sounds I believe this is true because remember
the officers are there with the parents at this time and at this meeting yeah and we already know that they are not
all on the same page but one of the officers yeah just meaning that some of the officers
think from the get-go this should be this should have been looked at as a homicide and then some of the other ones
just going this is probably accidental or possibly suicide well and the officers know that the parents are
dissatisfied with with the officer's investigation of this incident yeah and I think the officer's Hearts would have
to go out to those parents and this is why this statement has to be true because one of the officers then stands
up at the table and this is an increasingly heated debate but he says pointing to the photos pointing to the
envelope he says they don't want to see those right that same officer as he begins to take his seat again he tells
the parents that Malik had told them that 20 joints is what the boys would have had to have smoked to to have that
high level of THC that you know I am not a you know pot smoker myself but I would
just assume that 20 joints is a is a lot of joints yes 20 joints would be a considerable amount of I mean even if
you just put it in like terms of like cigarettes like a normal cigarette package has 20 cigarettes in it so they
would have had a smoke 20 cigarettes within hours I I don't know but it sounds that way
because he's pointing to the 100 Mark and saying this is how Stone these guys were
um it seems like yeah but I would have walked up to that board and pointed to that hundred and said Mr Fami this is
how much of an [ __ ] you are that's that's what that 100 means well Malik he denies that he had ever told
the officer such a statement he says I never told the officers that it would have taken 20 joints
um and the officers they had reason to believe that the boys purchased a 10 bag of marijuana on one of their stops that
night um the the police right it's a man if you can get 20 joints out of ten dollars
of marijuana yeah it'd be a bad business to be in because you could you could you
could spend ten dollars and be good for quite some time right uh the medical examiner's findings not only seemed
questionable to the parents but most of the citizens of Arkansas were pretty stunned by the ruling this is according
to the newspapers the parents decided to seek a second opinion they hired a second pathologist to review the deaths
now this was a pathologist that came recommended to them uh from other physicians in the area this is Dr JT
Franciscan go he's located in Memphis Tennessee he was charging the parents two hundred dollars an hour and he
explained to them that he would preserve and test the blood of both boys and the
urine of Kevin they would be unable to test Don's urine because his bladder had been completely
destroyed right and then also the this is the first time the parents are aware that that his urine hasn't been tested
yeah so we're seeing some progress here for the parents they received the results from Dr Francisco
and he actually confirms Dr Malik's ruling he quoted the same levels of THC that Malik had reported 100 97
micrograms per milliliter for Kevin and 122 for Dawn okay upon further review of
the material sent to the parents from Dr Francisco's office they were able to determine that the results were from a
test of Kevin's urine only no blood from either boy or no urine from dawn were tested all right so he's agreeing with
you know Mr Fami yeah so they get Dr Francisco on the phone and after some debate on how he could have confirmed
Malek's findings with only having tested the urine of one boy the doctor then admitted that they had arrived at the
conclusion by inference because his lab and the Arkansas lab followed standard procedures the confirmation of one test
gave weight of confidence that the other findings were going to be true as well right but couldn't they just test both
of their bloods but they didn't that's the whole thing they were led to believe that both sets of blood would be tested
they didn't test any of that but they but they claimed that they can back up Malik's findings right so we have the
Ives family and the Henry family kind of getting [ __ ] around again in February of 1988 the parents
contacted members of the media to arrange for a press conference this is a brilliant idea and they arrived at this
plan because the longer this thing went on they were beginning to realize that the only group interested in this case
was the media no other group wanted to spend any time on this thing the day after the press conference the families
were contacted by Richard Garrett who is the district Deputy prosecuting attorney
Garrett wanted to help he told Linda that until he saw the press conference he had no idea that the parents of The
Dead Boys had been dissatisfied with the sheriff's department he was going to hold a prosecutor's hearing well what's
that exactly well he's hoping that they will re-examine the case but a prosecutor's hearing is not just unusual
they are highly unusual these are intended for only special inquiries particularly when the cause of death is
in dispute well here the the cause of death is definitely in in dispute I mean we have two coroners saying well they
they got super stoned and then they laid down on the tracks and they got ran over
by a train and then the parents are going well that just doesn't add up doesn't make a lot of sense to us well
the deputy prosecuting attorney Garrett he would introduce the families to a man
by the name of Dan Harmon now Dan Harmon is actually a guy that is off in a private practice he's not a prosecutor
but he's going to be brought in as a quote-unquote special prosecutor in this situation and he is going to make
arrangements because he wants to get a grand jury organized so that this case can be looked at by some fresh eyes and
decide if the an investigation should shift gears or if that there's a chance of a trial taking place right right so
basically this grand jury is going to be set up they're going to look at that evidence and they're going to decide do
we need to reinvestigate this case or or is it shut you know open and shut case where these guys smoke some pot and then
they had an accident where the train ran over them and more importantly if if the
the cause of death is what's in question what the big dispute is then can we get
you know another autopsy can we get other autopsies performed on these two bodies right and after a couple more
autopsies are performed I think part of it too is like you don't want the families of these you know victims
they're victims of at least at this point a tragic accident you don't want them to be dissatisfied with uh law
enforcement and the way uh the coroner or anybody else handled their loved one's case so upon further review the
grand jury the first thing that they're going to do is determine if this cause of death is correct and their findings
they're not agreeing with what Dr Malik had stated and they basically overturned
the cause of death as a possible accident as a likely accident to a possible homicide well once that takes
place they're going to need to bring in somebody to conduct a further investigation into this autopsy and take
a look at this thing and and see if their findings are correct right so we already have two autopsies done so this
is technically going to be the third autopsy done yes so this they will bring in a man by the name of Dr Burton and
they actually bring him in from Atlanta uh they wanted to bring in somebody that
had more experience and somebody with outside eyes that wasn't so privy to what was going on in the area they bring
in Dr Burton and what are his findings well to begin with one of the things that he found most disconcerting or most
important to this case is the shirt that was worn by Don Henry or allegedly worn
by Don Henry this is the shirt that was not on the boy's body when he was found this was found some distance away from
the track where the Torso and the body of Don Henry were discovered alright so don didn't have a shirt on but this
shirt was possibly ran over by the train yes yes this shirt as we know has a lot
of tears and defects in it a question that was raised as to whether these tears or defects were made by the body
being pulled down the track by the motion of the train over the body of the victim
what Burton did was he had took the shirt to a private laboratory that he had worked in in Atlanta and they took
one of these tears this was a tear from the lower back area of the shirt that was kind of in the area of of an injury
that they had found on the back of Don Henry and they took a scalpel and they cut this defect out which measured a
little bit over an inch in length they then took this defect and they analyzed it under a scanning electron microscope
which is a very powerful microscope and with this microscope they could tell whether the fabric had been torn or cut
with something like scissors or a knife right so what he's saying is this cut on
the shirt and the body was either made by scissors or a knife yeah well basically basically what he can say is
that the cut on the shirt it exhibited all the characteristics of something that was cut with a very sharp blade
um so there's there's no question as far as this being at care or anything like that as far as Dr Burton is concerned
also around the cut in the shirt they found evidence of blood which means which means that the the boy had
probably bled through some kind of injury before this shirt was removed from his body right so we're starting to
assume that this injury was uh pre-mortem yes yes and and here's the to kind of lay it out very quickly here of
Burton's concerns right first of all we have the the knife he believes a knife made this cut in the shirt second of all
it's majorly concerning to him that this cut matches up with it with an injury to
the boy's back and that more importantly that the shirt was not found on the boy's body meaning that if this was an
injury that was sustained by the train itself that you would expect to see you would expect to see the the shirt still
on the boy matching up with the injury another thing that concerned Burton was an injury found to the left cheek of
Kevin Ives this was an injury that he did not find consistent with any pattern that might have been made from being
struck by the cow catcher in front of the engine uh he explained that he sent photographs of the boy's injuries to a
computer enhancement specialist and he was awaiting those results so we have two things that he finds pretty God
yeah these are injuries that would not be consistent with with the train now the thing is once they get those results
back Captain he finds as well as the the Specialists that he sent them to they find that that injury to Kevin's cheek
is consistent with that of being struck in the face with like the butt of a gun and more specifically uh They said that
the gun that was found with the boys could have very likely made that injury or caused that injury it would have been
a similar type gun or that gun the other thing that's interesting here Captain is
that he would find something in both of the boys that would give him cause of concern this is the amount of congestion
and fluid in the lungs of both of the boys he felt that this was inconsistent with the type of injuries that one might
expect from someone being run over by a train when you have a sudden death occurring he feels that it's very likely
that the possibility exists that because there's this Con congestion and fluid in
the lungs that both boys were either unconscious or already dead when they were placed on those tracks they're
either dead or they're knocked unconscious and that's why they didn't move at all
and so that the train possibly did cause their death but who put them there who made them
unconscious another thing that he included in the autopsies as well and this is more opinion than it is fact
but he had agreed with the train crew members stating that he he didn't see how anyone whether they be passed out
from drug use or be sleeping on the tracks how they would not have you know woke up as the train was
getting closer and closer these rails they vibrate the the train was Extremely Loud anybody that even has ever stood
next to a train just on the ground you can feel the ground moving below your feet uh there was also a state trooper
that was involved with the uh grand jury who had gone down to the train tracks with with some other people witnessing
him and he timed this so that he would be arriving and he could he could do this little experiment as a train was
coming he laid down exactly how the boys were laying on the tracks and he jumped
up from the from the rails pretty quickly but he said that you know when this train was this train was still
quite a ways away maybe a quarter of a mile he said he felt the thing when it was like a mile and a half away from him
he could feel it coming down the tracks and then on top of that he said he he got terrified and to the point where he
says he still has a little bit of like PTSD just from from that moment experiencing that little experience he
was also conscious at the time correct all right so this third autopsy it brings up some questions and and it
seems like it's not that agreeable with the first two autopsies which I think you know causes a lot of concern I think
it also causes a lot of concern with the parents well as far as that second test
goes and let's let's call that a test rather than an autopsy because it was supposed to be a testing of the boy's
blood in the boy's urine um you're exactly correct thank you and and but we know that that didn't take
place um but not only does this point out here that the the autopsies were probably
wrong but now this really starts to make you question the medical examiner himself uh you know what what is he up
to why how would he have arrived at these conclusions uh after performing in autopsy had a significant amount of time
to perform these tests and he comes up with a completely different ruling than what this this other guy comes up with
from from Atlanta right and look then it becomes which doctor is correct well because of this whole case we have
a lot of interesting things come out about Malik and Malik has all these autopsies that were ruled normally
natural causes or accidental and because of this you know because of the parents
and I applaud the parents so they start in the pot and then they start going back and looking at some of his other
autopsies right we have a scenario where he ruled a guy we're just going to tell
you about some of the more Wild Ones let's call them wild and and we won't use any names because these
pick these particular people are only involved in this case through Malik they have really no right you know nothing to
do with this case but this gives you an idea of some of the shenanigans going on with
Fami Malek right so old Fami he you know rules this guy dies of a ulcer not a big deal right that's his ruling
the guy died of an ulcer and everybody actually agrees with him says Hey Malik did his job again
but they had people find this guy's head yeah so he was decapitated apparently that happens naturally when you have an
ulcer uh your head just pops off right um so once they found this severed head they realized this autopsy was
completely botched yeah do you want to know how he defended himself on that particular case sure so
um here's what happened here they they found the the dog that lived with this guy uh he actually lay dead in his home
for for quite some time uh the dog that lived there they recovered some of the dog's vomit and in it they found what
what Fami believed to be uh evidence of of human tissue of skin um so what had happened was Fami said
that the guy had died and he lay there for quite some time and at some point the dog uh chewed on the neck and to the
point of decapitating uh his owner um but of course the thing here is it was ever all the
evidence points to a very clean cut right of somebody killing this guy and taking off his head not the gnawing of a
dog uh chewing chewing up this this guy's neck right and then there's this other case where the guy this guy was
suicidal he he told his family about it yeah they put him in a place for treatment he wanted
help right he went to his family he said help me out and and do it right and it looks like he lost his battle with the
you know suicidal thoughts and he hung himself right and in this case Malik decides well it wasn't suicide it was
actually an accidental death and again it's just stuff like that where it's like and this is just three examples of
probably like does maybe a dozen or 20 of them out there that that are pretty well known right and so the governor at
this time is Bill Clinton and people are calling for this guy's job saying look we got these two boys that now we
believe there's good reason to believe that there was some foul play and this guy is ruling this we dug up all this
other stuff he's not doing his job and taxpayers are paying for that they want him to call you know they want Bill
Clinton to ask for his resignation right look Bill Clinton says well I I'm not really in charge of doing that that's
not really my thing so what do they do do they fire him do they replace him no they give him a 43 raise where this
leaves us now is we now have to look at these two deaths as murders okay so we need to conduct a proper murder
investigation and why were these things covered up and why does it seem that government officials and people with the
medical examiner's office in the sheriff's department they seem to not want to investigate this thing properly
right and at what lengths are they going to go to or what is anybody going to go
to to possibly cover up this murder there's so much more to get into and we're just on the first episode of this
yeah because if the cause of death can be overturned that brings up so many more questions okay first of all if
these boys were murdered why were they murdered what what happened during those four hours between the time they left
Don's house and the time that they're found on those tracks what occurred during those four hours did they see
something that they shouldn't have seen did they come across somebody that they they shouldn't have come across what
happened to those boys in that four hours well we have a really good idea what happened because we have a bunch of
eyewitness accounts and we're gonna have to get into that tomorrow yes and don't
forget to check out all of our old episodes they're available in the iTunes Store and on our store Page at truecrime
garage.com thank you guys so much for sharing this um thank you guys so much for sharing
um thank you guys so much for sharing it with the friends family I just got a text message a couple minutes ago saying
hey I told somebody about your show they don't call it true crime garage they call it the captain show the captain
show well imagine that isn't that special all right we'll see you guys in the garage tomorrow and
until then be good be kind and don't litter thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Boys on the Tracks /// Part 1 /// 93

Part 1 of 4

TrueCrimeGarage.com

By all accounts, the engineer did a masterful job of bringing his train to a stop. It had taken a screaming, screeching half mile. By the time the engine shuddered to a standstill, Conductor Jerry Tomlin was on the radio notifying an approaching train on a parallel track to stop because some boys had been run over. He also called the dispatcher. "Have you got injuries?" The dispatcher asked. "No," Tomlin said. "We've got death." -From "The Boys on the Tracks" by Mara LeverittTonight we discuss the case that many wanted to keep quiet. Two teenagers are run over by a train in the middle of the night. Was it an accident, a double suicide or a double murder? Join us in the garage for the tragic story of the boys on the tracks.

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Brief Summary

Teenage boys Kevin Ives and Don Henry were found dead on train tracks, sparking a controversial investigation into their deaths.

Key points

Train Tragedy Unfolds. A train conductor realizes the horror of hitting two boys on the tracks.
Boys Last Seen Alive. Kevin Ives and Don Henry go missing after a night out hunting.
Police Arrive at the Scene. Authorities investigate the shocking discovery of two boys run over by a train.
The Train Incident. Two boys were found dead on the train tracks, raising questions about the investigation.
Confusion at the Scene. The sheriff's office seemed to dismiss crucial evidence, leading to public outcry.
The Cardboard Evidence. A piece of cardboard found at the scene could have been crucial evidence, but it was mishandled.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

We've got death, I'm sure we've got death.

Conductor's grim realization after the incident

4:06WatchOct 11, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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