Kentucky cold case: Mother seeks justice 40 years after son’s hit-and-run death

STANFORD, Ky. (WKYT) - A Lincoln County mother continues seeking justice 40 years after her teenage son was killed by a hit-and-run driver.

Jeffrey McQueen, 15, was walking home after hanging out with friends following a high school football game in November 1985 when he was struck and killed. The driver did not stop.

“I don’t know how anyone could have hit him and kept going,” said Jo Ann Elliott, Jeffrey’s mother. “I couldn’t believe that anybody would have done that. It was hard to imagine someone hitting him and kept going.”

Jeffrey never made it to the family’s Stanford home that night.

Decades of investigation yield no arrests

The case has generated speculation, rumors, allegations and questions over four decades. It was the subject of a special coroner’s inquiry in the 1990s, but nothing has led to an arrest or anyone taking responsibility for McQueen’s death.

The coroner’s inquest ruled it an accident, but investigators told Elliott it was still a homicide.

“If they did it that to me years ago and was scared, I would not hold that against them,” Elliott said. “I would just want to know what happened.”

Elliott said she wants to know who was responsible for her son’s death.

“How could they put me through this much misery. How could they just not come forward and told about it? How can they live with theirselves,” she said.

Elliott said finding answers would bring her peace.

Local police officer Rob Oney has devoted a recent podcast to the cold case.

That podcast is available in the Apple Itunes or Spotify under “Uncharted” or “Have a Goodin” from August, 12, 2025.