Jay Durham liked nothing more than the open road. The forty-five-year-old ace auto mechanic and welder was the proud owner of six pristine Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Jay was not a member of a gang or an ill-reputed club; he was simply a man who loved to bike. As he was riding one of his prized hogs through the Razorback state, however, he encountered a motorist who, literally, took a part of him.

In the early morning hours of April 16, 1992, Jay departed Little Rock, Arkansas, to begin a five-hundred-mile trip to his nineteen-year-old son’s home in Canton, Kansas. He left during the early morning hours as he planned to make the trip in one day.

For an hour the traffic was sparse and the trip uneventful. As Jay neared Russellville on Interstate 40, however, a truck rammed into his motorcycle, pinning him between the bike’s bumper and the truck’s grill. When the truck closed in on another tractor-trailer, Jay jumped. As he did so, the wheels of the truck rolled over him, snapping off his right leg at the knee.

Jay landed in a ditch. Though bleeding profusely and filled with pain, he had the presence of mind to use his chain belt as a tourniquet. He saw the truck pull to the shoulder of the road and the driver try to detach the bike from the truck’s grill. It was still dark, and he could not make out the man’s features. Fearing the trucker would kill him, Jay kept quiet.

Another truck soon pulled to the side of the road. The driver helped the man who had hit Jay pry the motorcycle from the truck’s grill. The men dumped the bike into the ditch an then each appeared to search for Jay, who remained quiet.

After a couple of minutes of searching, the two men returned to their respective trucks. Jay saw them shake hands then drive away in their respective big rigs. As dawn came a couple of hours later, Jay was spotted by a group of teenagers who called an ambulance.

Doctors saved Jay’s life but could not re-attach his leg. He also lost a finger, thumb, and several teeth. Other injuries included four broken ribs, punctured lungs, several broken fingers and knuckles, a cracked jaw, a broken nose, and a fractured skull. He also needed over four-hundred stitches in his head. The attack rendered him a paraplegic, and he was confined to a wheelchair for the remainder of his life.

Jay Durham

Police believe the grill and radiator of the truck that hit Jay and his motorcycle sustained significant damage as they found a considerable amount of antifreeze along the shoulder of the road. It likely sat for a period of time as the driver dislodged the motorcycle from beneath his truck. The rig would have required extensive repairs fairly quickly.

Police believe the second truck driver who stopped to help detach Jay’s motorcycle was told the truck had hit a parked, riderless bike and that he was not a part of the attack on Jay. Neither trucker was found.

Some believe the ordeal was an accident and that the driver may have fallen asleep at the wheel. Most investigators, however, consider it a clear cut case of attempted murder as the driver saw a crime of opportunity. Jay himself is not believed to have been specifically targeted, but the trucker may have had a grudge against bikers, and, in the early morning hours on the sparsely populated Interstate, saw an opportunity to attack.

The Trucker Was Not Found

Following the incident, Jay worked some as a tattoo artist, but he was forced to live primarily off of disability. He became addicted to painkillers but was able to kick the habit.

Jay Durham died in 2014 without learning the identity of the man who maimed him.

Who Maimed Jay Durham?

SOURCES:

• Arkansas Democrat-Gazzette
• Springfield News-Leader
• Unsolved Mysteries