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On August 23, 1987, two Arkansas teenagers were found dead on a railroad track outside Bryant.

Authorities quickly ruled it an accident. The official story claimed Kevin Ives and Don Henry had smoked marijuana, laid down on the tracks, and fallen asleep before a freight train came through.

Case closed.

But when a second autopsy was performed, investigators discovered one of the boys had a crushed skull before the train ever reached him.

Suddenly the accident story didn’t hold.

What followed was one of the most controversial investigations Arkansas has ever seen. Allegations of evidence tampering. A medical examiner who would later go to prison. Rumors of drug smuggling flights through the small town of Mena, Arkansas during the late 1980s. Witnesses who died under mysterious circumstances.

Nearly four decades later, the question remains:

How did two teenagers end up dead on a railroad track… and why has the truth never been settled?

In this episode of Things I Want to Know, we break down the timeline, the evidence, the corruption allegations, and the theories surrounding one of Arkansas’ most haunting cold cases.

Because sometimes a train doesn’t just run over bodies.

Sometimes it runs over the truth.

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