On the evening of May 24, 1979, U.S. Customs Inspector Kenneth G. Ward, 34, was killed during a secondary screening at the United States Port of Entry in Lynden, Washington. A couple entering from Canada, 26-year-old Artie Ray Baker and 26-year-old Marie Laure Ferreboeuf, attracted suspicion because they carried no luggage after claiming a three-day trip and were not the registered owners of their 1974 Chevrolet Vega. During a pat-down of Baker inside the border station, Baker resisted, produced a .45-caliber handgun and shot Inspector Ward in the chest at point-blank range; another inspector was also fired at before the couple fled.

A Drug Enforcement Administration agent who had been in the station witnessed the shooting and pursued the pair. A large manhunt followed, and both suspects were captured the next morning near the Nooksack River; Baker was arrested still carrying the murder weapon. Baker was later convicted of premeditated murder and Ferreboeuf was convicted as an accessory after the fact. The Lynden border station was renamed in Inspector Ward’s honor in 1987.

Does anyone have memories of Inspector Ward, or information about the Lynden station at that time?