On October 1, 1973, 17-year-old Francine Price Barnes was found murdered in her family’s home on Russell Cave Road in Lexington, Kentucky. Her father, the Reverend John K. Barnes, and her 14-year-old brother, John E. Barnes, were also killed; the family matriarch was away at a church convention and survived.

Two escaped federal inmates, Wilmer Scott and William Sloan, had broken out of a federal holdover in Lexington earlier that day. They carjacked a woman near the Sayre School, forced her to drive them home, tied up that woman and her children, stole a rifle and her car, then went to the Barnes residence. Inside the Barnes home Francine was sexually assaulted before being killed; her father and brother were also murdered. The assailants ate a meal in the house before stealing the family car and fleeing.

Scott and Sloan went on to kill three more people at a motel in Falmouth, Kentucky, before a manhunt led to their capture. Both men were later convicted in connection with these crimes. Does anyone have memories of the Sayre School area in 1973 or information that could shed light on why the Barnes home was targeted?