Ferdinand Frederick Bud Pribbenow, a 47-year-old Kansas Highway Patrol trooper and 22-year veteran, was killed on the evening of July 11, 1981 while on duty on the Kansas Turnpike north of El Dorado. Around 8:10 p.m. he stopped a vehicle for speeding near Oil Hill Road after noting a Wisconsin license plate and that the car had a single male occupant. As he approached, the driver, 23-year-old George Eric Rainey of Wisconsin, exited and opened fire. Pribbenow was struck in the chest and neck by bullets from a .357 caliber handgun; a physician who arrived attempted aid but the trooper’s injuries proved fatal. Rainey took Pribbenow’s service weapon and fled in his Oldsmobile.

Rainey’s car was later seen at the Kellogg exit tollgate in East Wichita; a pursuit began and about a mile in his vehicle rammed the back of a van stopped at a traffic light near Towne East Shopping Mall. Officers ordered Rainey out, he fired on them, and officers returned fire, wounding him and taking him into custody. Rainey was convicted of first-degree murder for Pribbenow’s death and of aggravated assault on an officer, and received a life sentence.

Did anyone who knew Trooper Pribbenow or witnessed the stop remember details about the car, the encounter, or what happened at the tollgate?