In January 1981 Fort Smith, Arkansas, lost one of its own when 33-year-old police detective William Ray Tate disappeared while following up on a missing-person report. Tate had gone with two women to the home of Larry Price after they reported Price missing; Tate notified dispatch when he arrived but was not heard from again.

The next day the bodies of Detective Tate, Jawanna Price, and her co-worker Holly Gentry were found in a river-bottom field in nearby Kibler. All three had been shot execution-style in the back of the head; Tate was found restrained with his own handcuffs. Larry Price’s body was later recovered in a nearby recreation area, also a homicide.

Investigators arrested Thomas Simmons, then on parole, and charged him with four counts of capital murder. Simmons was convicted on all counts and sentenced to death. Detective Tate, a U.S. Army veteran who had served four years with the Fort Smith Police Department, is remembered as having died in the line of duty.

If anyone has information about Tate’s final assignment or knew him professionally, please share what is known.