On the night of September 9, 1984, 54-year-old Livingston County Deputy Sheriff Carnie F. Hopkins radioed dispatch at about 11:20 p.m. to report he was stopping to investigate a hitchhiker near the intersection of US 60 and KY 137, just east of Smithland, Kentucky. A short time later a dispatcher arriving for work discovered his body at the scene.

Investigators found Hopkins had struggled with his assailant or assailants and died of a single gunshot wound to the chest. The shot was fired from Hopkins’s own service weapon. The hitchhiker he had stopped was gone and no suspect was identified in the immediate aftermath. Hopkins was a World War II United States Air Force veteran and had served with the Livingston County Sheriff’s Department for two years. He left a wife, two sons, and a daughter.

Decades later the case remains unsolved; detectives reported receiving new leads in 2017 but no arrests or public suspect identities have been announced. Does anyone have information about that stretch of US 60 near Smithland on the night of September 9, 1984?