DOVER, Ark. (AP) - Troy Allen heard the gunshots that killed his brother, Billy Joe Allen, on Jan. 16, 2014.
“I heard it,” he told Courier News (https://bit.ly/1Kszc6i ). “I heard pop, pop, pop, then a hesitation, then boom, then a hesitation and another boom.”
Troy was lying on the couch in his living room north of Dover when the shots rang out. He didn’t think anything of it. His brother, who lived nearby, was always shooting guns at targets in his yard.
“If I had known, I could have been over there in a minute,” Troy said. “If I had only known. I heard them killing him. I didn’t have the damn sense to know what was going on.”
The bodies of Billy Joe and Patricia Meadows, Troy’s niece, were found burned along with the remains of Allen’s travel trailer, which he had been living in since his home burned down.
Fifth Judicial District Prosecutor David Gibbons said the cause of death, and the reason the case was upgraded to a homicide, was not - and still will not be - released by his office because it is part of an ongoing investigation. However, the Allen family came forward with a death certificate for Billy Joe Allen, which stated he died from gunshot wounds.
Two articles were published by The Courier in the week following the murders, neither of which named the victims. The first story presented the information available at that time - two dead in a house fire. The second story stated police were treating the deaths as homicides. No reason was given for the upgrade.
Gibbons said he would not confirm whether or not Allen and Meadows were killed by gunshots because the case is currently an ongoing investigation.
“I’m not confirming they were shot, but I can assure you this case is of utmost importance in the investigator’s minds,” Gibbons said. “Meetings are held frequently, and investigators have even traveled out of state for the case. A week doesn’t go by that it’s not discussed.”
After two years, the family yearns for justice to the question aching them still today: Who killed Billy Joe and Patricia?
Troy said many of his calls to law enforcement inquiring about the status of the investigation have gone unanswered and unreturned. His dislike of the case’s handling is apparent.
“They don’t ever answer the phone or call you back,” he said.
Gibbons said in interviewing suspects he can use information “only the killer would know” against a suspect and be rest assured they got that information via first-hand experience and not from the media.
But neighbors are already talking. On a post made by the Pope County Sheriff’s Department on Facebook seeking information regarding this case, the first response is:
“So in January 2014 two people are shot and then burned and in October 2014 another person is shot and burned and no one knows who set the fires on either case. I feel for sure there is a common denominator on these cases! Everyone please please if you know anything or remember anyone saying anything please contact Mr. (Joe) Carter. He is also working the case to find out who burned my nephews body and car.”
The comment currently has seven likes. The post itself has over 800 shares.
“The killers would know what color shoes they had on,” Troy Allen said. “What kind of gun they used. Anything. Not a day goes by I don’t think about my brother. He came by for coffee damn near every day. Whoever did this is still out there.”
Troy sat back on the couch, plastic cannulas pumping oxygen from a nearby tank to his nose. The tubing snaked around burnt-out ashtrays and cigarette butts.
A small television flickered the scene from a crime documentary. In the show, the police had their man, and the interrogation was well underway.
“That brother of mine always dealt in dope,” he said. “Always selling pills. They all knowed it.” Meadows was no different. Troy said he believed she got caught up selling fake drugs.
“You can hear anything, I guess,” he said. “Another drug deal gone bad, but I reckon that’s why.”
Several 911 calls were placed by or about Meadows in the months leading to her death. In the two years before the double homicide, 25 calls to 911 were made concerning Meadows.
In May 2013, eight months before she was killed, Meadows called to report a “chemical smell” inside her house. She advised the dispatcher that it “smelled like a meth lab.”
Sixteen days later, Billy Allen’s house caught fire - a fire that was determined to be electrical in nature.
Billy’s house was a total loss, which forced him to move into the travel trailer in which he was later killed.
In June, Meadows called to report her room at Motel 6 was broken into. She advised the dispatcher that they were “going through everything in her room” and “they have two pounds of meth in their room.”
She knew because they had asked her if she wanted to buy it. Meadows reported the thieves absconded with her jewelry.
At the same time, the night clerk at Motel 6 called 911 to report that a guest was on the balcony harassing people. Police responded and escorted Meadows off the property. Four months later, in October, Meadows reported that her sister stole her medications. She reported that David Allen, who is Billy Joe’s brother, was with her and that “he is a felon and supposedly has a gun.” A domestic disturbance was called in between David Allen and Patricia Meadows a month later.
The next phone call involving Meadows was the report of the blaze at the travel trailer where she and Billy Joe died.
Troy said he believes law enforcement saw the deaths as a problem solving itself, despite Gibbon’s assurances that the case is “very active.”
“It was swept under the rug, I reckon,” Troy said. “But what I think doesn’t matter.”
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Information from: The Courier, https://www.couriernews.com
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