Tragedy strikes again for family of Kentucky sheriff assassinated in 2002 political plot

Bill Estep
·3 min read
38

A husband and wife who died in their home Friday afternoon in Pulaski County may have been overcome by carbon monoxide, according to the sheriff’s office.

A vehicle was left running for some time in the garage at the home of Lewis Catron, 77, and his wife Carol Catron, 73, and that may have caused a deadly level of carbon monoxide in the house, Pulaski County Sheriff Bobby Jones said in a release.

Harold Catron was a long-time member of the sheriff’s office and was serving as an honorary deputy at the time of his death.

He was the older brother of longtime Pulaski County Sheriff Sam Catron, who was assassinated in April 2002 by a man allied with a drug dealer.

Jones said a family member went to check on Harold and Carol Catron Friday afternoon and found them unresponsive in their home on Pumphouse Road in Somerset.

The family member called 911. Police received the call to respond at 3:50 p.m.

The cause of death for the couple won’t be confirmed until an autopsy, but the preliminary investigation points to carbon monoxide from the vehicle in the garage, according to the release.

Jones described the deaths as accidental.

“We have lost two close friends who have for years been considered part of the Sheriff’s Office’s family,” Jones said in the release. “Our hearts and prayers go out to the Catron family as they face yet another tragedy.”

Sam and Lewis Catron’s father, Harold Catron, chief of police in Somerset, died in 1964 of an injury related to a shotgun blast he had suffered several years earlier.

Carbon monoxide poisoning from vehicles left running in garages has become a greater concern with the increase in keyless ignition systems.

Sam Catron had been Pulaski County sheriff for four terms and was running for a fifth term when he was shot and killed in April 2002.

Catron was leaving a fish fry at a rural fire station where he and other candidates had spoken when Danny Shelley, then 30, shot him in the head with a high-powered rifle.

Lewis Catron hugged his mother, Jennie Rachel Catron, on April 18, 2002 at the funeral for his brother and her son, Sam Catron, who was assassinated by a man working with a drug dealer.
Lewis Catron hugged his mother, Jennie Rachel Catron, on April 18, 2002 at the funeral for his brother and her son, Sam Catron, who was assassinated by a man working with a drug dealer.

Shelley was quickly arrested after he wrecked the motorcycle he was using to try to get away.

He implicated two others in the plot to kill Catron — Jeff Morris, a former deputy who was running against Catron after losing his for taking days off without permission, and Kenneth White, a drug dealer.

White was supporting Morris’ campaign, allegedly in hopes of having the county’s top law enforcement officer in his pocket to protect his drug dealing and bootlegging.

Shelley was addicted to pain pills and other drugs at the time, and White was supplying him.

Shelley said his judgment was impaired by drugs when he went along with the plan by Morris and White to kill Catron. He is serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole for at least 25 years.

Morris also is serving a sentence of life without parole for at least 25 years. White was sentenced to life without parole. and died in prison in 2018.

Sam and Lewis Catron’s father, Harold Catron, chief of police in Somerset, died in 1964 when a pellet left behind in his chest from a shotgun blast several years earlier, which couldn’t be removed, shifted and caused a heart attack.