On the night of March 20, 1981, West Fork Police Chief Paul Her Mueller was killed during a traffic stop on Highway 71. Chief Mueller suspected the driver was intoxicated; when he approached the vehicle he was met with gunfire and was struck in the chest. Despite being mortally wounded he managed to return fire, wounding one of the occupants, Billy Gale Henry. The other occupant, Rodney Britton, fled the scene in the vehicle and left both men by the roadside. Gasoline attendants later found the chief beside his patrol car, its lights still flashing and the engine running.

A massive manhunt for Rodney Britton ended four days later on March 24, 1981, when he was shot and killed in a shootout with officers. Billy Gale Henry was arrested at the scene of the shooting, convicted of capital murder for his role in Chief Mueller’s death and originally sentenced to death; the Arkansas Supreme Court later reduced that sentence to life, and he died in prison in 1994. Chief Mueller had served six years with the West Fork Police Department and was survived by his wife and two children.