James Luke Baker, 20, died the night of October 24, 2015, at the Prairie Wings Duck Lodge near Altheimer in Jefferson County from a single gunshot wound to the head. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office reported the wound was self-inflicted while Baker was playing a solitary game of Russian roulette; friends said he had smoked marijuana and pulled the trigger once without the gun firing before a fatal second shot. Friends transported him to a Pine Bluff hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Baker’s father, Kerry Baker, rejected the official finding and pursued alternate answers, filing a wrongful death suit in 2018 naming several people who had been at the lodge, including Skylar Wilson and relatives who co-owned the lodge. The family arranged a private autopsy after exhuming the body and the case record shows contested changes to the coroner’s manner-of-death entry. A Jefferson County judge dismissed the lawsuit for misconduct by the plaintiffs’ side, but an appellate court later allowed the family to refile. No arrests were made and no criminal suspects have been officially named.

Are there readers who were at the Prairie Wings Duck Lodge that weekend or who can share information about what happened that night?