As a long-time Saline County resident and former law enforcement investigator, I am writing to express concern regarding public statements made by Richard Friend, a certified law enforcement officer and current candidate for Saline County Sheriff, about his handling of investigative materials connected to the well-known “Boys on the Tracks” homicide case.
In 2024, Mr. Friend appeared on multiple episodes of the Arkansas 15 Minute Podcast, where he described how he came into possession of a state police case file marked “Ives, Henry – Death.” According to his own statements, this occurred in 2004 while he was serving as acting police chief in Shannon Hills. He said he discovered the file during K-9 training at an abandoned structure, reviewed hundreds of pages of documents, took the materials to his home, and later turned them over to the then-indicted Shannon Hills police chief.
The deaths of Kevin Ives and Don Henry in 1987 remain officially unsolved and represent one of the most consequential homicide investigations in Arkansas history. Any handling of original investigative materials outside a documented chain of custody raises legitimate concerns about professional judgment and evidence integrity – particularly when such handling is described publicly by a candidate seeking to lead a county law enforcement agency…