In 2004, the most recent year for which complete statistics are available, Clay County's murder rate was 1.65 per 10,000 residents. To put that figure in perspective, it is more than double New York City's murder rate (0.7). (Sources: Kentucky State Police, "Crime in Kentucky," 2004; "Crime in the United States," FBI's Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2004.)

August 11, 2005

January 6, 2005

November 25, 2004

November 4, 2004

A 42-year-old man was shot to death in the community of Urban. Police said they believed there were two gunmen who were hiding on the side of the road when the victim drove by.

October 7, 2004

A prominent 67-year-old businessman was shot dead. Police were mum about suspects.

(December 2, 2004: Two of the victim's cousins were arrested and charged with the murder. Police did not suggest a motive.)

July 15, 2004

Three people were shot onGoose Creek. One man died. Another, who had been shot in the chest, fled in a car whose driver, a 21-year-old woman, lost control, crashing it into another car. TheEnterprisereported no theory as to why the wounded man fled.

February 13, 2003

A 50-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison for the December 2001 murder of a Billy's Branch man. The man's son was sentenced to five years as an accessory.

AManchesterman was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of his half-sister. His girlfriend, who was allegedly his accomplice, will go on trial in June. The state said they smashed the woman's skull with an ashtray, stole her credit cards and then set her house on fire.

A 51-year-old man was indicted on attempted murder charges after police said he opened fire on them while they were investigating charges that he beat up a woman. One of the bullets grazed a policeman's head..

January 30, 2003

The murder trial of a father-and-son team got under way. The two were charged with the gunshot death of another man on Christmas Day 2001, reportedly over a "relationship." No other details of a possible motive were made known.

January 9, 2003

A 33-year-old man was charged with second-degree murder when, according to police, he crashed into an embankment while driving drunk on New Year's Eve; the crash killed his brother, who was a passenger.

Two men were indicted on murder charges in a double gunshot murder on Christmas Eve. A third man was indicted in one of the slayings. Police said drugs and drug trafficking were the likely motivations behind the murders.

November 21, 2002

A 41-year-oldCincinnatiman was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the gunshot murder last year of a 33-year-oldClayCountywoman, He had been her boyfriend "for a short time," police sources said.

A 60-year-oldOneidaman goes on trial next week for the murder of a 26-year-old woman in 2000. She was shot 13 times with an M-16 rifle.

October 10, 2002

A 20-year-old Roots Branch man has been charged with murdering his mother by gunfire. Police say they do not have a motive.

June 20, 2002

A 50-year-old Mill Creek woman has been charged with murder in the stabbing death of her ex-husband, 11 years younger, in a domestic dispute.

June 6, 2002

A 24-year-oldOneidaman was arrested for the shooting death of his girlfriend after the two had begun to argue.

January 3, 2002

A 50-year-old former Clay County resident and his 26-year-old son have been charged with the murder last month by gunshot of a Billy's Branch man. Authorities wouldn't discuss a motive on the record, but "a relationship" is said to be at the root of the dispute.

November 22, 2001

A 40-year-old man has been indicted in the murder by gunfire last May of a woman he had been dating for a short time.

A 19-year-old was indicted for reckless homicide in the shooting death of another 19-year-old last March.

October 11, 2001

The local commonwealth attorney will seek the death penalty against a 27-year-old man and his 43-year-old girlfriend who are accused of murdering the man's half-sister and setting her house on fire last month. Authorities speculate that they were after an inheritance; they also went on a spending spree with her credit cards. The cause of death is said to have been a blow to the head from a heavy ashtray.

September 6, 2001

A 51-year-old Garrard man was killed in a shooting after he and another man argued. No charges have been filed, and "sources" told The Enterprise that the fatal shooting was in self-defense.

May 17, 2001

A 41-year-old Cincinnati-area man has been arrested and charged with the gunshot murder last week of a 33-year-oldOneidawoman. They had been romantically involved for a short time, police sources said. (See update onNov. 22, 2001.)

April 19, 2001

The mother-and-son team accused of a double murder offered to plead guilty to manslaughter charges and accept 10-year prison sentences. But the family of the victims in the double-murder trail objected.

A jury convicted a man of manslaughter for killing a man by gunshot. According to The Enterprise, the defense attorney said the victim had been drinking and taking methamphetamine, "resulting in violent tendencies," although the newspaper did not say how those act might have been connected to the shooting.

January 11, 2001

A 36-year-oldOneidaman was charged with homicide in the strangulation death of his wife. The local sheriff said the couple had quarreled.

November 23, 2000

Authorities have recovered an M-16 rifle that they say a local man used in killing a woman. They say the man fired at least 13 rounds into the woman's pickup truck, after an argument between them.

July 6, 2000

A local woman who had successfully sough a new trial in charges that she shot her husband to death in 1993 pled guilty to manslaughter just before the second trial was set to begin.

June 8, 2000

A 33-year-oldOneidawoman was beaten to death by her boyfriend. TheEnterprisefeatured the beating in its major headline, and mentioned only in a subhead that the victim had actually died.

June 1, 2000

Acting on a tip, police found the bullet-riddled body of a 56-year-oldOneidaman lying in a yard. Sheriff EddJordansaid: "This shooting leaves a lot of questions unanswered."

February 24, 2000

A man killed his wife and then himself. Authorities said they suspected that marital difficulties were at the root of the incident. The man was an employee of the local penitentiary.

October 28, 1999

A 74-year-old woman was charged with killing her ex-husband with a .38 revolver. Police said they suspect there had been a domestic argument.

August 19, 1999

Matching murder indictments were returned against a mother-and-son team. They're accused of killing two men, stuffing their bodies in the trunk of a car, and sinking it in a pond -- following a dispute over money and the ownership of a van.

Flashback:July 1, 1993

A bizarre mother-son precedent: Police said a mother and her son shot and killed each other. Police said the woman's pistol was the same one she had used to kill her husband three years earlier.

July 29, 1999

AClayCountynative and his wife were charged with the double murder of a man and woman in neighboringLeslieCounty. The victims were attending a funeral there. Police aren't sure why the crime happened.

June 24, 1999

A 26-year-old Big Creek man was killed by gunfire as the result of an apparent feud over the theft of a four-wheeler. A 28-year-old Double Creek man has been arrested and charged with the murder. His lawyer said his client shot in self-defense. A police source told The Enterprise that the victim "was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

March 19, 1998

A member of the county legislature, Johnny “Poss” Gregory, tried to quash rumors of a tax increase by saying “It will happen over my dead body.”

Three dead bodies were found inClayCountythis week.

March 12, 1998

A 31-year-old Coal Hollow man was stabbed to death during what authorities described as a domestic dispute with his wife, who later said she did not remember the incident.“We really can't elaborate on what may have happened,” said Sheriff EddJordan.

September 8, 1994

A quarrel between brothers-in-law led to the shooting death of one of them.

February 18, 1993

Police say a Bowling Branch man was shot and killed by a drinking companion after an argument.

December 23, 1993

An apparent robbery in a man's mobile home turned into murder when the 65-year-old victim resisted.

October 7, 1993

A woman was charged with her husband's murder after a domestic dispute.

August 26, 1993

A farmer was killed in what authorities described as a gangland-style ambush.

December 3, 1992

Police arrested a woman for murdering her stepson.

October 15, 1992

A jailhouse fight between two inmates resulted in the death of aClayCountynative.

April 23, 1992

A headless body, found floating in a local pond, has been identified as that of anIndianaman.

Verbatim from TheManchesterEnterprise,December 1, 1994: Pet chicken may have led to murder An argument between a mother and her son over a pet chicken to be used at a chicken fight may have led to a murder, according to Edd Jordan, sheriff. Authorities responded to a report of a shooting on Thanksgiving night that left a trailer and two cars on KY 638 near Fogertown showered with bullets. Both vehicles and the trailer were completely destroyed, according to SheriffJordan. With the investigation pending, police aren't releasing any names involved in the altercation or who the trailer and cars belonged to. "Right now we are not releasing anything other than there may have been a murder," SheriffJordansaid. . . . Backing up the theory that someone may have been shot is blood found in one of the vehicles showered with bullet holes. Verbatim,December 8, 1994: No murder in pet chicken case The person believed to be murdered in the case of the pet chicken has surfaced inJacksonCountyunharmed, according to Edd Jordan, sheriff. He was found stripping tobacco at a barn nearMcKee,Jordansaid. Police are still not releasing any names involved in the incident. "The statement made by the witness saying someone had been shot looks to be untrue,"Jordansaid.