On a quiet Sunday, October 3, 1999, in Varner, Arkansas, the life of 57-year-old Cecil Boren, a retired prison warden, was tragically cut short. That day, an inmate named Kenneth Dewayne Williams, who was just under a month into a life sentence for a separate murder, managed to escape from the Cummins Unit prison by hiding in a 500-gallon barrel of pig slop being transported out of the facility. After his escape, Williams made his way to Boren's nearby home.
Boren was in his yard at the time, as his wife, Genie, was at church. Williams shot Boren seven times, dragged his body to a nearby bayou, and then ransacked the home, stealing several firearms, Boren's truck, and other personal items.
The discovery of Boren's absence and the disarray of their home by his wife initiated a frantic search. A neighbor who came to help ultimately found Cecil Boren's body near the bayou. By this time, Williams had fled in Boren's truck. The following day, police in Lebanon, Missouri, spotted the stolen vehicle, which led to a high-speed chase with speeds reaching up to 120 miles per hour. The chase ended tragically when Williams crashed into a water delivery truck, killing the driver, 24-year-old Michael Greenwood. Williams was apprehended shortly after he fled the crash scene on foot. At the time of his arrest, he was wearing some of Boren's clothing and was in possession of items belonging to both Cecil and Genie Boren.
Kenneth Dewayne Williams was subsequently tried and convicted for the capital murder of Cecil Boren in August 2000 and was sentenced to death. He had a history of violent crimes, including the murder of a university cheerleader, for which he was serving the life sentence when he escaped. After years of appeals, Williams was executed by lethal injection on April 27, 2017. The execution was witnessed by members of Cecil Boren's family, who had waited nearly two decades for what they felt was justice for his senseless murder.
