Man Was Murdered in His Home in 2017. Investigators Say His Killer Confessed to Multiple People

Prosecutors say Kenneth “Bud” Hall would have faced a murder charge in Clancy Ray Adkins’ killing, but Hall died before investigators identified him as the suspect

NEED TO KNOW

• Clancy Ray Adkins was shot and killed at his Kentucky home on Feb. 4, 2017

• Investigators say Kenneth “Bud” Hall told several people that he killed Adkins and threatened them if they spoke out

• A prosecutor says Hall would have faced a murder charge if he were still alive

A Kentucky man was shot and killed at his home nearly a decade ago. Now, authorities say they have determined who killed him — but the suspected gunman died before he could be charged.

Clancy Ray Adkins was fatally shot at his Island Creek home on Feb. 4, 2017, according to WYMT. His family spent years searching for answers as the investigation eventually went cold.

On the night he died, Adkins had planned to make dinner and watch a University of Kentucky game with friends, his family told the outlet in 2020.

His family said a shot was fired through the home before Adkins was shot twice in the doorway, though they could not be certain of the exact sequence of events. His relatives believed the first shot may have been intended to lure him to the door.

“Three years. Don’t know a thing,” Adkins’ sister, Beulah Harrison, told WYMT in 2020. “It’s on your mind every day. You know, it never goes away.”

At the time, Kentucky State Police Trooper William Petry said investigators had followed the available leads as far as they could.

“The case will not be closed until it is solved,” Petry said.

Six years later, Pike Commonwealth’s Attorney Bill Slone says investigators have identified the man they believe was responsible: Kenneth “Bud” Hall, who has been dead for four years.

“The evidence, in my opinion, clearly establishes probable cause that Clancy Ray Adkins was murdered by Kenneth ‘Bud’ Hall,” Slone wrote in an Aug. 3 letter obtained by WYMT.

“If Mr. Hall were still living, we would present the case to a grand jury and seek a charge of Murder,” Slone continued. “However, as Mr. Hall is deceased, we must of course decline to prosecute the case.”

Kentucky State Police Detective Logan Hillerman was assigned to revisit Adkins’ killing on Aug. 1, 2025, according to documents obtained by WYMT through an open records request.

State police worked with the Pikeville Police Department to reexamine evidence and conduct follow-up interviews with people involved in the original investigation, according to the records.

One witness allegedly admitted that she had lied during a polygraph examination early in the investigation, saying she had not been sober and had “felt pressured and thought she would get in trouble, so she made all of it up,” according to the records cited by WYMT.

That interview and information uncovered by Pikeville police eventually led investigators to Hall’s widow, the outlet reported.

Further interviews allegedly revealed that Hall had told several people that he killed Adkins and threatened to kill them if they told anyone, according to the investigative records obtained by WYMT.

One man told investigators that Hall said he shot Adkins with a .22-caliber gun.

“It isn’t the first time I used that gun and it probably won’t be the last,” Hall allegedly told the man, according to the records.

The records also indicated that the shooting was rumored to have stemmed from jealousy over a previous relationship between Adkins and Hall’s wife, according to WYMT.

During a second interview, Hall’s widow reportedly told investigators, “Bud was a drug addict but he was not a murderer.”

She also said Hall had told her that “he killed three people because he was on drugs,” but she did not believe him, according to the records cited by the outlet.

After conducting additional interviews, Hillerman submitted his findings to the Pike Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office in January, per WYMT.

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Slone said Adkins’ family was informed of investigators’ findings.

“I want to thank you and your colleagues at Kentucky State Police as well as the Pikeville Police Department for such a thorough and persistent investigation,” Slone wrote in his August letter.

“I hope that the weight of the evidence which you all gathered and presented to the family has provided them with some measure of peace.”’

WYMT said it contacted Kentucky State Police, Pikeville police and Slone for additional comment.

Years earlier, Harrison had told the outlet what she wanted most from the investigation.

“You know, I’m 65. I could die tonight,” she said in 2020. “But I’d like to know who done it and why.”