Joshua Josh Oakes, 37, was shot and killed the night of Friday, February 17, 2017, at a home on Pumphouse Road near Somerset, Kentucky. A Science Hill resident, Oakes was a U.S. Navy veteran, father of two daughters, and worked as an engineer at Graham Packaging. Friends and family remembered him as kind-hearted and always smiling.

Deputies from the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office found Oakes and he was pronounced dead at the scene after what witnesses described as an argument that escalated between Oakes and another man, 31-year-old Erik S. Hardwick, who lived at the residence. Hardwick fled, prompting an overnight manhunt; he was located the next morning on Old Pumphouse Road at 10:45 a.m. and charged with murder. An autopsy was performed the morning after the shooting and the case was later presented to a grand jury.

If anyone knew Joshua, his movements that evening, or witnessed the argument on Pumphouse Road, please share what is known with investigators.