Patrolman Morris E. Greenwalt, 51, was killed during a traffic stop on Interstate 40 on April 29, 1974. Greenwalt, a six-year member of the Hazen Police Department, stopped a pickup truck that was occupied by three women suspected in a recent armed grocery store robbery. The women had escaped from the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women two days earlier.

During the stop one woman opened fire and struck Greenwalt. While he lay wounded, another suspect took his service weapon and fired the remaining rounds into him. The three fled in the stolen pickup but were all captured later that same day. Chemical tests showed the two older women had recently fired a weapon, while the 19-year-old had not. The 23- and 24-year-old women were convicted of murder and received life sentences; the 19-year-old was convicted as an accessory to murder and given an 11-year sentence.