Darrell Vendl Phelps was a 34-year-old Kentucky State Police detective killed on August 7, 1981, while working an investigation in Edmonson County into illegal marijuana cultivation. A twelve-year veteran, Phelps and another officer encountered a suspect in a marijuana field; the suspect opened fire and Detective Phelps was fatally wounded. He left behind a wife, a daughter, and a son.

The suspect, identified as Harry Lee Shelor Jr., was arrested and later convicted for Phelps’s murder on September 4, 1981, receiving a 50-year prison sentence. Shelor began serving that sentence on June 30, 1982.

Are there readers with memories of Detective Phelps, the Edmonson County investigation, or other details about the case that could add to the record?