MAN WAS MURDERED IN HIS HOME IN 2017 — NEARLY A DECADE LATER, INVESTIGATORS SAY THEY KNOW WHO KILLED HIM

For nearly 10 years, Clancy Ray Adkins’ family lived without an answer.

On February 4, 2017, Adkins was shot and killed inside his home in Island Creek, Kentucky. The case eventually went cold, leaving his relatives with one painful question: Who killed him, and why?

Now, investigators say they finally have an answer.

But there is a devastating twist — the man authorities believe was responsible died before investigators identified him as a suspect.

According to PEOPLE and investigative records obtained by WYMT, Kentucky authorities say Kenneth “Bud” Hall was responsible for Adkins’ murder. Hall has been dead for four years.

Pike Commonwealth’s Attorney Bill Slone said investigators developed probable cause that Hall killed Adkins and that, if Hall were still alive, prosecutors would seek a murder charge against him.

Because Hall is deceased, however, prosecutors cannot bring the case against him.

The investigation began anew in 2025, when Kentucky State Police Detective Logan Hillerman was assigned to revisit the nearly decade-old killing. Investigators worked with Pikeville police, reviewing evidence from the original case and conducting new interviews.

Those interviews reportedly uncovered information that changed the direction of the investigation.

According to investigative records, several people told authorities that Hall had allegedly confessed to killing Adkins. Investigators also say Hall threatened some of those people, warning them not to reveal what he had allegedly done.

One man reportedly told investigators that Hall admitted shooting Adkins with a .22-caliber firearm.

The records also point to a possible motive involving jealousy. Investigators reportedly learned of rumors that the killing was connected to a previous relationship between Adkins and Hall’s wife.

Another witness, Hall’s widow, reportedly told investigators that Hall struggled with drug addiction but insisted she did not believe he was a murderer. She also allegedly recalled Hall claiming he had killed three people while under the influence of drugs, though she said she did not believe those statements at the time.

The case had remained a source of deep pain for Adkins’ family.

On the night he was killed, Adkins had reportedly planned to make dinner and watch a University of Kentucky basketball game with friends. Instead, his family was left trying to understand why someone had entered his home and taken his life.

Years later, his sister, Beulah Harrison, described the uncertainty as something that never truly went away.

In 2020, after three years without answers, she told WYMT that she simply wanted to know who had done it and why.

Now, authorities say they have finally provided the family with an answer — although it came years too late for a prosecution.

In an August letter, Slone said the evidence gathered by Kentucky State Police and Pikeville police established probable cause against Hall and expressed hope that the findings would give Adkins’ family some measure of peace.

The case may never result in a courtroom trial. But after nearly a decade of unanswered questions, investigators believe they have finally uncovered the story behind the killing of Clancy Ray Adkins.

For his family, the discovery does not bring him back. But it may finally bring something they have been waiting for since 2017: an answer.

The allegations against Kenneth “Bud” Hall were not tested in court because he died before he could be charged or prosecuted.

Source: PEOPLE