Undersheriff Kenneth Ellsworth Miller, 50, was killed in the early morning hours of December 10, 1977, while investigating a report of a man trying to flag down vehicles on a highway north of Turpen, Oklahoma. A concerned citizen accompanied him to the scene; both Miller and that citizen, Danny Cambern, were found shot in a ditch, each killed by a .22 caliber pistol. Miller’s patrol car was stolen from the scene and a different stolen vehicle was left behind.

Two men, ages 21 and 29, fled in the stolen patrol car and were captured the next day in Utah after a high-speed chase. They were identified as James E. Lewis and David Richardson, and were charged and convicted of two counts of first-degree murder; both received life sentences. The older convict later died in prison on March 10, 2004. Miller was survived by his wife, Leta Lorene, and their four daughters.

Did anyone in Turpen or Beaver County have information about that December 1977 homicide or remember the events surrounding the night Miller and Cambern were killed?