Murder investigation underway in Lawrence County

By Lilly Adkins

BSN Associate Editor

LOWMANSVILLE — Kentucky State Police received a request for assistance from the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office after a man was found dead in the Peach Orchard community of Lawrence County near Ky. 3 on July 6.

The victim was identified as Carl Daniel, 58, and evidence at the scene suggests foul play, according to a release issued by the Kentucky State Police in Ashland.

Dallas Shell of Inez said he is the man who found the body and that he just hopes for justice for the family. Shell said in a post on Facebook that he had been arguing with his girlfriend and that he had gone off to clear his head.

“Anyone who knows me knows I go to the OI store house semi garage and back in it and set on my hood till I’m calm enough to go home,” Shell said. “I got out of my truck and something about that building seemed kinda off to me today. I didn’t think much of it but I noticed one side had cardboard put over the doorway. I still think it’s odd but I still didn’t think nothing of it. I got done with my beer and threw the can in the corner like always and climbed up the side of my truck bed and get hit in the face with the most sickening smell. It about made me puke, so me being me, I go to investigate. I figured someone emptied out their deep freeze with old raw meat like they have done so many times there. I looked around the building, nothing. I noticed a three to four foot wide drag mark going from the left side of my truck by this cardboarded up door, under my truck and out the other side so yet again, me being me, I follow it and it led me out of the other door and behind the building, my worst nightmare has just begun when I cut around the corner, I saw what I hope no one will ever have to see.”

Shell said he called 911 after discovering Daniel’s body. Shell said that he was questioned by police for five hours.

“I didn’t know who it was at the time,” Shell said.

An autopsy was scheduled for July 7, and preliminary findings revealed the man died of a homicide, the KSP said. The case remains under investigation by KSP Det. Jeff Kelley.

Daniel is survived by two sons, Carl Daniel Jr., and Matthew Daniel, both of Tomahawk; four brothers, Jimmy Lee Daniel and John L. Daniel, both of Tomahawk, Harry S. Truman Daniel of Lowmansville and Harold Thomas Daniel of Paintsville; three sisters, Virginia C. May of Hager Hill, Jean Pridemore of Lawrence County and Tammy Cantrell of Louisa; and a grandchild.

A graveside service was conducted Tuesday, July 13, at the Daniel Cemetery on Wooten Road in Tomahawk, under direction of Mullins Family Funeral Home of Warfield.