Patrick Massey AKA "Dirty Red" Murdered
A Grant County family attempts to piece together their lives amid questions about justice
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One time the Massey family went to Rising Star campground on the Arkansas River.
Ann Massey couldn't take off from work for the entire vacation with her husband, Patrick, and their young daughter, Destiny.
While Ann went to work, Patrick and his daughter hung out that day – not unusual – as the two were very close. When Ann returned that night from her job in Sheridan, she found her daughter’s curly hair in two ponytails. The ponytail holders? Bread wrapper ties.
“That was Patrick, he was my problem solver,” Ann said sitting at her kitchen table in Lazy Bend, a tiny rural community in southern Grant County near Grapevine and the Saline River. “Patrick was my everything. I'm grateful God put a man like Patrick in my life.”
After Destiny came Lucas, five years later. The Masseys became a tight-knit foursome who loved to camp, fish, hunt, anything outdoors including relaxing on their boat. He was known as the family's “redneck Santa” and “peacemaker” but he could be rowdy, especially in his younger years.
The Massey family’s life was shattered on March 28, 2019, one day before Patrick's 46th birthday. Patrick, who owned a trucking company, was killed by a man living about half a mile down the dirt road from them who had moved into their tiny community around 2016 on land owned by his family.
Warning: The details of Patrick's death are violent and graphic. The Massey family allowed South Arkansas Reckoning to report the details.
On April 30, 2019, Prosecuting Attorney Teresa Howell filed five charges:
Capital Murder With Aggravating Factors
Criminal Attempt To Commit Capital Murder
Criminal Attempt To Commit Capital Murder
Battery In The First Degree
Aggravated Assault
Last week on May 7, more than five years after those horrific events and a long series of complicated court proceedings, a hearing occurred in Grant County about the case between the accused man and the state of Arkansas.
Circuit Judge Stephen Shirron entered a Judge Note into the record.
A jury trial was scheduled for Oct. 21 through Nov. 1. On May 15, the jury trial was officially cancelled, according to court filings. Prosecuting Attorney Teresa Howell will file a court order.
“The court order from the recent hearing has not yet been entered,” Howell wrote in an email to South Arkansas Reckoning Wednesday afternoon. “When the order is filed, it will give you statutory references to the upcoming procedures in the case.”
Now the question is: What happens next?
The Massey family reels with anger and grief wondering if a trial will ever occur so the facts of the case can be heard. They have many unanswered questions, but they are also choosing to remember the positive impact Patrick had on their lives and others he knew throughout the years.
When asked what Lucas thought about his dad, he said crying, “Oh boy, that’s a question, ain’t it? Dad was a dad, he was my person, my rock, I loved him very deeply.”
Lucas, who will graduate May 24 from Sheridan High School, loved fishing with his dad. They spent hours on the boat together. Lucas also learned the art of mechanics from his dad who loved cars and trucks more than anything other than his family. His CB handle was “Dirty Red” because he drove a red truck and it was always dirty. People throughout South Arkansas knew him by that nickname.
“We joked that his truck was his mistress,” Ann said. “He loved trucks.”
Dirty Red and big trucks
There was never a time Patrick didn't love cars, trucks – anything with a motor.
When he was a little boy in Lazy Bend, he sat behind his dad’s 1969 Dodge Coronet pretending to drive it and waiting for the school bus. He loved that car and that started him on his career path.
After Patrick graduated from Sheridan High School in 1991, he went into trucking. First, he worked at Treco then as a diesel mechanic for Gene Raney in Fordyce and Dale’s Camping Center in Pine Bluff.
A temporary mechanic job at UPS offered an opportunity he couldn't afford to miss because of the salary. He knew it wasn't going to last forever, but it afforded him the chance to get his CDL to drive big trucks. He returned to Gene Raney’s and worked as a truck driver.
Soon after Lucas was born, Patrick decided to start his own business. Ann thought he was crazy.
“We did not have the money to do that,” Ann said. “We were already struggling, we had two young children, one a baby. At the end of it all we were going to have literally 32 cents to our name, I was terrified. Patrick said, ‘Baby, I can make this work, I promise,’ and he did. We lived that week on a prayer. If anything had gone wrong even something simple as a blowout, we were in trouble. We had a perfect week. We got that first check and never looked back.”
Patrick always said that particular week was “by the grace of God.”
In typical Patrick fashion, he named his business AMPM Express, LLC.
“He wanted to be able to do it all day and all night,” Ann said, laughing.
As AMPM business thrived, Patrick bought his dream rig — the Black Cherry Pete. The words “By the Grace of God” was already cut into the bumper.
“I said, ‘That really is your truck, isn’t it?’” Ann said.
The Story of Us
Patrick met Ann on the school bus, but they never talked. That was until a boy kept harassing Ann on the bus.
“Patrick made him quit because my brother wasn’t on the bus to take up for me that day,” Ann said.
Both married other people once they graduated high school. Those marriages didn't work out. Then, fate and a mutual friend brought them together again. He took her mud riding in a jacked-up 1985 Toyota extended cab four-wheel drive with a set of super swampers. Their love stuck for 20 years.
“We just clicked,” Ann said. “Now, he was no saint.”
Destiny chimed in, “We got him straightened out.”
They both laughed in the interview.
Ann and Patrick dated for a year and then married at Ann’s mother’s house in a small wedding. They would have been married 20 years on August 7, 2019, if Patrick had not been viciously murdered on that March day.
In the fall of 2000, Destiny, now a spunky 23-year-old, was born.
She took a lot of pictures and videos of her dad who joked most of the time. They loved sharing music with each other – everything from AC/DC, 80’s hair bands to Zach Wylde with some 2 Live Crew in the mix, too.
“He was goofy, but he was protective,” Destiny said. “He would come home early in the morning from driving with donuts. Irish Maid. That’s my favorite memory. The best times were when we spent time with him in the big truck, camping, taking the boat to the lake, mud riding, and in the deer stand.”
He taught Destiny how to change a tire and oil in her car and everything else about anything with wheels.
Patrick wanted Destiny to attend college after she graduated from Sheridan High School in 2018. He didn't want her to have to depend on a man. Ever. Destiny was worried about tuition.
“That big truck made all of my dreams come true,” Destiny said. “He said all he had to do was haul a few extra loads, no big deal. I didn’t want us to have the burden of tuition.”
The stories the Masseys share about Patrick are endless.
A simple story was about his hair style.
“He had a mullet in high school, he had a mullet when he died,” Ann said.
When the Masseys threw birthday parties and cookouts for the kids at the river, Patrick would pick out the kid who didn’t look like he or she was having a good time and bring that one into the party.
There was the time Ann helped organize a poinsettia fundraiser as a 4-H leader. That year, poinsettias didn’t sell — at all. Ann was upset. Patrick asked how many poinsettias were left. Ann said about 100. Patrick told Ann to just cut a check from their account and buy the flowers.
“What are we going to do with 100 poinsettias?” Ann asked Patrick.
Patrick, ever the problem solver, told Ann to take the flowers to area nursing homes.
Another time, Ann had a flat tire. The irony? Patrick never taught Ann how to change a flat, but he always had her back.
“He always looked out for me, didn’t matter if he was in Arkansas City or where, he always looked out for me,” Ann said. “He called a guy he knew to come and fix that flat.”
The 1969 Coronet
His dad, Ray Massey, sold that 1969 Coronet to Butch Kelley, a Lazy Bend neighbor, but Patrick always wanted it back.
One day Butch called and told Patrick if he wanted it to come get it. Patrick and Lucas went down to Butch’s. A tree was growing inside the Coronet. But that didn’t deter Patrick. He wanted the car, because he wanted to restore it for his dad whose health was failing. He wanted to be able to take him for one last ride.
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Patrick’s dad’s health worsened before he could restore the car. He told Ann to search eBay for one.
Sure enough, Ann found one and told Patrick. She also said she was going to lowball the bid.
“Do what?” Patrick asked.
“He was mad,” Ann said.
She did it anyway. The owner came back and asked if Ann could add two thousand to her bid. Done deal. Patrick wasn't too mad then.
A man in Flagstaff, Arizona, owned the car. Ann booked Patrick an airplane ticket and off he went to drive the car back to Arkansas.
“He stopped at a Walmart on the way back to buy a radio because it didn't have one in it,” Destiny said. “He couldn't come all the way back without music.”
Patrick's dad never rode in the car before he passed away. But Patrick drove it to Sonic with Lucas for a root beer float or at Christmas with Destiny.
The Last Anniversary
Tough on the outside who didn't back down from anything, Patrick was a big old softy, too.
On their 19th anniversary on August 7, 2018, Patrick was driving his big rig with Destiny, who was sitting beside her dad. He handed Destiny his debit card and told her to order her mom some flowers.
The pair went to Walmart to buy food for the anniversary dinner. Patrick was a homebody, and he seldom liked to go out to eat because he was always on the road. When he got home, he wanted to stay there. He especially loved to grill steak and shrimp and the main staple of any Massey dinner — jumbo baked potatoes.
“Patrick was a meat and taters kind of guy,” Ann said.
He grilled for Ann on their anniversary like he often did on Friday nights because he knew she was tired from a long work week. He also tried to buy Ann chocolate covered strawberries for that anniversary at a specialty store in Sheridan. The catering store was already closed. Not one to ever give up, Patrick made chocolate-covered strawberries for Ann himself.
“It was the little things,” Ann said. “It didn’t have to be elaborate. It was from the heart. I felt like he put me on a pedestal. He wasn’t perfect, but he was perfect for me.”
Trucker Parade
Family and friends — even those from decades earlier — packed Memorial Gardens Funeral Home Chapel on April 6, 2019.
Destiny helped choose the music for her dad's funeral because of the love of music she shared with her dad.
During the slide show playing during the funeral, they chose “Heaven Was Needing A Hero.”
“He was our hero,” Ann said.
Other songs played during the service were Zack Wyld’s “I Thank You Child” and Lynard Skinner’s “Simple Man.” The final song was one that Patrick would just break out into for Ann — Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls.”
Ann laughed. “We wanted to end it with a fun song. Patrick would have wanted that.”
Patrick was buried in a Glory Boat — a casket in the shape of a boat. His friends, Butch Kelley and Patrick Parrish, modified a metal boat rack to put behind the kingpin of one of his big rigs and carried his casket to the cemetery in a trucker parade with all of his trucker buddies in their big rigs flying Jolly Roger flags. Patrick loved Jolly Roger emblems on the grills of his trucks. His friends gave the flags to Destiny and Lucas.
Due to the untimely brutal slaying of Patrick Massey, that March event has left a void in many people’s lives.
Ann has had to maneuver complicated life decisions without her “problem solver” by her side. Lucas will graduate in a couple of weeks without his father there.
Destiny and Lucas are thankful for everything their dad ever did for them, even the discipline in their childhoods because tough love made them better people, Destiny said. He also taught them how to live life to the fullest.
Destiny said through tear-filled eyes, “The only thing my dad didn’t teach me was how to live without him.”
Thank you for telling this family's story. I hope you will follow them, especially the kids as they take their dad's example and spirit into adulthood. I think there will be a lot more to their story.
When a defendant enters a plea to the court of Not Guilty by Reason of Mental Disease or Defect, the court MUST have the defendant examined by a mental health professional. If the opinion of the said doctor is that at the time of the crime(s) the defendant was suffering from such a mental disease or defect that he could not conform his behavior to the requirements of the law or did not understand that his actions violated the law, then he must be found Not Guilty by reason of such mental disease or defect and be ordered committed to the state hospital for an indefinite period or until he is cured.
Your article is full of emotion to the point of implying that someone did something wrong here. But, unless you are claiming that the examining doctor is lying, this case was properly handled in accordance with the law!