Ryan Eric Matchison and Adam C. Harvey were childhood friends who grew up in Kenton County and graduated from Dixie Heights High School in 1998.

        Mr. Matchison was a good student who kept an eye on his younger brothers, teachers say.

Harvey

Matchison

        Mr. Harvey played the guitar, once appearing during amateur night at Bogart's in Corryville. He recently had been attending vocational school at night and working as an apprentice electrician during the day.

        “They were not the kind of guys who got in trouble,” said Mr. Harvey's cousin, Michelle Benson, 21, of Anderson Township. “That is why the news surprised us so much.”

        The bodies of Mr. Matchison, 22, and Mr. Harvey, 20, were found Monday, 15 miles from a farmhouse where the two often spent the weekend. It was their getaway, where they built bonfires, did some target shooting and rode four-wheelers.

        Mr. Matchison was shot in the chest and Mr. Harvey was shot in the back, an autopsy report shows.

        Their bodies had been taken from the farmhouse off Toadvine Road in southern Bracken County to a boat landing, where it appears their killer planned to dump them into Snag Creek, said State Police Detective Chris Jaskowiak.

        Investigators do not have a suspect or solid motive in the crime, the detective said, but officers were following several leads Wednesday night. Police were searching for the two victims' vehicles, a black two-door 1984 Olds Cutlass Supreme and a 1993 Nissan pickup truck.

The bodies of Adam Harvey and Ryan Matchison were found Monday at this boat landing along along Snag Creek. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        Bracken County resident Larry O'Brien spotted tarps on the boat landing about 9 a.m. Monday, as he drove to Falmouth across the bridge over Snag Creek.

        “I stop and pick (tarp) up if I think it's good, so I came back after I'd been to Falmouth,” the 56-year-old retiree said.

        But when Mr. O'Brien took a closer look, he found two tarps covering what appeared to be sleeping bags, which had been taped shut with duct tape.

        “It looked like two people were covered up,” Mr. O'Brien said. “I thought maybe it could be hoboes or something like that, so I went back down and got my neighbor to come look at it.”

        Mr. O'Brien said he called Bracken County Sheriff Michael Nelson when he and his neighbor couldn't wake up the people in the bags by yelling at them.

        On Wednesday, a rabbit hunter uncovered more clues in the homicide investigation. The hunter found a plastic garbage bag containing Mr. Harvey's wallet and other items near deer carcasses about six or seven miles from the crime scene.

        The bag was found near a railroad underpass on Long Stretch Road, just outside Augusta city limits, said Augusta Police Chief Greg Cummins, and was turned over to Kentucky State Police.

        Also in the bag: a pager, a heavy glass ashtray, a couple of plastic CD cases, three or four wadded up paper towels, and some latex gloves.

        “It looked like the only thing missing in his wallet was his money,” Chief Cummins said.

        Mr. Matchison recently had been living in Florence, Mr. Harvey in Elsmere. Both still have siblings who still attend Dixie Heights, and the word of their deaths quickly spread among the school's 1,150 students.

        “We announced their deaths before observing a brief moment of silence Wednesday morning,” said Dixie Heights Assistant Principal Larry Tibbs. “The crisis team (counselors) is here to talk with any students upset by the news.”

        Dixie Heights teacher Kathleen Wonderling, who taught Mr. Harvey math in his junior and senior years, remembers him as a hard-working student.

        “He would do anything I asked of him,” she said.

        Mr. Harvey played in the jazz band during high school.

        Mr. Matchison's parents, who live in Villa Hills, declined to be interviewed.

        Said Mr. Harvey's aunt, Janice Benson, 52, of Anderson Township:

        “I hope they catch the person who did this to him. He didn't deserve this.”

       Enquirer reporter Cindy Schroeder contributed to this report.
       
       

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