At around noon on June 11, 1992, a nuisance abatement officer for the Cape Girardeau Police Department found a body lying in a shallow creek underneath the Juden Creek Bridge located north of Twin Trees Park.

It turned out that the body was not a corpse, but rather an unconscious man. He had stab wounds to the head and neck. Blood splatter indicated that he had been thrown over the railing of the bridge and had landed in the creek.

He was rushed to the hospital. He was identified as Danny L. Sheppard, 20, from Arkansas. He had been working with a carnival that had been operating rides at the Riverfest in downtown Cape Girardeau.

He regained consciousness at the hospital five hours later. He claimed not to remember what had happened to him and was unenthusiastic about cooperating with the investigation.

Although the people he had been with the previous evening were eventually identified and questioned, investigators were never able to confirm with certainty who had stabbed him.

The victim made a full recovery and left Missouri.