Three people — including a prominent Kentucky dentist and his son — were arrested last month in connection with the fatal stabbing of 38-year-old Amber Spradlin, found dead in the dentist’s home more than a year ago.
Michael McKinney III, 24, is charged with murder and multiple counts of tampering with evidence and is being held on a $5 million bail, NBC News reports. His father, dentist Michael McKinney II, 56, faces seven counts of complicity, He was released on a $250,000 bond. A third suspect, 23-year-old Josh Mullins, was also charged with multiple counts of tampering. All three pleaded not guilty.
Last week, the three were indicted on an additional county of tampering.
Spradlin had recently begun work as a hostess at a her family’s restaurant at the time of the murder, NBC reported. On June 17, 2013, she reportedly went out after work with her boss and friends, as CrimeOnline reported. They ended up at McKinney III’s home later in the evening.
Someone called 911 from the home later that night, but police didn’t respond after someone else got on the call and said there was no emergency. But a lawsuit filed in June by Spradlin’s family says that wasn’t the only call to Prestonburg Police, which had recently taken over emergency response from Kentucky State Police at the behest of Floyd County officials.
The second call, according to NBC News, went directly to the then head of Prestonburg’s Police Department, Randy Woods, according to the lawsuit. The third call the following morning, again to the 911 center, was described as “chilling” by Floyd County Judge-Executive Robbie Williams, who did not further explain.
Woods and Williams are among more than a dozen people named in the lawsuit. Woods, who stepped down days after Spradlin’s murder, Williams, and current Police Chief Ross Shurtleff have all defended the police lack of response.
Kentucky State Police conducted the investigation that led to last month’s indictments. In them, prosecutors says the McKinneys and Mullins destroyed evidence — including blooding clothing, the handle of the murder weapon, and surveillance cameras that would have recorded the murder.
They also allegedly planted a different knife in the couch where Spradlin was found to “suggest it was the murder weapon.”
The three are due in court again on October 24.
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[Featured image: Amber Spradlin/Facebook]
