Although investigators had not officially identified the victims at press time Tuesday night, eyewitnesses at the scene told The Daily News they believed the victims were Donnie Joe Fuson, Brian Carnes and Arley Carnes, whose ages and addresses were not immediately available.
The bodies were discovered in Kettle Island's Temple Hill area by Darrell Cox Jr. and Joyce Smith, both of Kettle Island, who were trail riding their all-terrain vehicles when they happened upon an unfamiliar white Chevrolet van, which was isolated with all doors open. Asking Smith to stay back, Cox, who immediately suspected foul play, approached the van.
Cox observed a leg hanging out of the driver's side door.
“When I saw the guy's leg hanging there, I thought, ‘Something's not right,'” he told The Daily News. “I told Joyce to wait. I said, ‘This is Donnie Joe Fuson and he's dead.' She asked me if she should check his pulse, and because she's a nurse, I told her to look.”
Cox and Smith said when they investigated further, they also found and recognized the bodies of Arley Carnes and his nephew, Brian Carnes, in the back of the van.
Cox reported that all of the bodies appeared to have been shot, because “They all had shotgun patterns on their backs.” He then speculated, “It looked like they might have all been standing around a fire or something (when they were shot in their backs).”
When questioned about the appearance of activity around the van, Cox said there was little blood elsewhere than immediately on the bodies.
“There was a little blood on the running board of the van, on the passenger side,” he said.
After explaining that he observed a table in the van with syringes scattered around it, Cox speculated that the victims might have been “sitting up there doing drugs, it looked like.”
“You live by the sword, you die by the sword,” Cox observed. “I hate to put it like that, but it's the truth.”
Cox and Smith were later joined at the scene by fellow ATV riders David Sprinkles and Charlotte Brooks. Cox called Sprinkles to the van, where Sprinkles also confirmed the victims' identities.
“Nobody had seen any of them since Friday afternoon,” Sprinkles said.
“You always see them going up and down this road (which immediately connects to the trail leading to Temple Hill),” Brooks added.
At some point, local authorities were notified of the grisly discovery, with Kentucky State Police Trooper Jeremy Lee being the first law enforcement official on the scene. He was joined by state police Detective Mitch Williams and Bell County Sheriff Bruce Bennett and Deputy Coroner Bill Bisceglia, among other officials.
Bisceglia confirmed Arley Carnes' identity in a phone conversation with The Daily News.
Several family members also arrived at the scene. Among them was Wanda Foister, who identified herself as the mother-in-law of Brian Carnes and confirmed that he was one of the victims.
Brandy L. Murray is a Staff Writer for the Daily News. She can be reached via e-mail at brandylarae@gmail.com. Daily News Lifestyles Editor Donna Greene also contributed to this story.
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