Sheriff Roy Tipton was struck and killed as he got out of his vehicle parked along State Road 59, three miles south of Brazil.

   His older son and a deputy sheriff went with him and had approached the nearby farmhouse to take a man into custody who was suffering from mental illness.

   As Sheriff Tipton exited his vehicle, he was struck and dragged over 100 feet as that vehicle crossed the center line and overturned in a southbound ditch.

   The 15-year-old driver of the northbound car that struck him was charged with driving without an operator's license.

   Sheriff Tipton, a Republican from Brazil, was in the first year of his two-year term in office. He was survived by his wife, 11- and 23-year-old sons, 20-year-old daughter, mother, two brothers and four sisters.

   His wife, Mae Tipton, was appointed sheriff to serve the remainder of her husband's term, becoming the first female sheriff of Clay County and the third female to serve as a sheriff in the state of Indiana.

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This officer, discovered in 2013, has not been submitted for consideration as an eligible line of duty death to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund by the Clay County Sheriff's Department.