Thunder Roads Magazine of Oklahoma/Arkansas May 2016 | Page 27

READER SUBMISSIONS

At 4:00 am, Kim Mobley was
strangely awakened to the chill of
the night unable to catch her breath.
She sat straight up in bed, holding her chest gasping for
air. Her husband, Bob, tried to help her catch her breath and
calm her back to breathing regularly. She fell back to sleep
only to awaken a few hours later to her alarm feeling normal
despite her previous awakening. At 6:00 am, a deputy came
to her door with a phone number written on a piece of paper
asking her to call it. No questions asked, she went to her
phone and dialed the number. “Ms. Snaples?”, came the voice
on the other end. “Snaples is my previous last name. I’ve remarried and my name is now Kim Mobley.” “Ms. Mobley,
I’m sorry for the loss of your son Kerry Snaples.” She slid
out of the chair to the floor. Her 22 year old son, Kerry, had
just been killed in a motorcycle accident in route for a surprise visit to see his family. Leaving his shift at the Dept.
of Corrections only hours before around 3:00 a.m., Kerry
headed one state away to visit his family. He had only had
his first bike, a sport bike, for a few months at the time of
the accident.
As any parent would do, she began asking many questions. The first question was, How? How did this happen?
Most of us would expect an answer immediately. We’d also
expect to be told where the accident occurred, what happened
at the scene of the accident and where the wrecked motorcycle was taken. However, Kim and Bob were not told any
of these answers by the local authority. After some time had
passed, they were able to find out that the motorcycle had hit
a truck that had died in the middle of the road late at night.
The driver of the truck had a .38 Blood Alcohol Content. So,
some questions were being answered. However, they only
fueled Kim’s grief, anger and resentment towards this drunk
driver for taking her son’s life. It came to the point that she
had to start her own investigation in order to get some relief
from her pain and frustration. She and Bob found the approximate location of the accident, visited a nearby salvage
yard owner and quickly solved many of the mysteries that
surrounded the death of her son. She asked to see the bike
but he didn’t want her to see it. She recognized it behind
him covered by a tarp. She was relieved to find a set of keys
that she’d previously sought through his personal belongings without resolve.
After four years, Kerry’s day in court came to reality.
Through the case, Kim was finally allowed the information
needed to find out what may have happened on that lonely
highway. From the photos taken by the police at the scene of
the accident, it appeared Kerry was traveling along the road
on his sport bike at almost 4am with a faulty headlight at a
very high rate of speed. The drunk driver’s truck had died
Thunder Roads Magazine of OK/AR

27