Gary V. Gifford

NEVADA APPEAL

October 13, 1975

Nevada Highway Patrol’s first duty related death

The death Tuesday of Nevada Highway Patrol officer Gary Vance Gifford, 29 marks the first time in the 26 year history of the NHP that an officer was killed in the line of duty.

Gifford first joined the NHP in July 1969 and had resigned for a period of a few months earlier this year to take the post of assistant chief of the Fallon Police Department. He was reinstated to the patrol in July and was assigned to the Incline Village area where he made his home.

He was patrolling the South Shore Lake Tahoe area Tuesday when he made a routine traffic stop just west of the Cave Rock tunnel.

He was shot in the back of the head by a person he stopped, a suspect in a Round Hill Mall Bank robbery.

A native of San Francisco, he served four years in the U.S. Navy before joining the NHP.

Gifford, who was divorced, is survived by a son, James, 5: his parents Vance and Edith Gifford of Foster City, Calif.; and a sister, Pamela Vogt of Fremont Calif.

Nevada Appeal

October 15, 1975

An unemployed and reclusive ex-Marine suspected of robbing a bank and killing a Nevada Highway Patrol officer held three men hostage Tuesday but was talked into surrendering by a federal agent who served with him in Vietnam.

Ken Meller, 34, of Medford, Ore., was held without bail for investigation of kidnapping, murder, and assault with a deadly weapon.

Plaque Location & Image

South Wall Column 12 Row C     View The Plaque