Three people – including a well-known Kentucky dentist and his son – were arrested last month in connection with the fatal stabbing of 38-year-old Amber Spradlin, who was found dead in the dentist's home over a year ago.
Michael McKinney III, 24, is charged with murder and multiple counts of tampering with evidence and is being held on $5 million bail, NBC News reports. His father, dentist Michael McKinney II, 56, is charged with seven counts of accessory after the fact. He was released on $250,000 bail. A third suspect, 23-year-old Josh Mullins, was also charged with multiple counts of tampering with evidence. All three pleaded not guilty.
Last week, the three were charged with tampering in another case.
Spradlin had just started working as a hostess at her family's restaurant at the time of the murder, NBC reported. On June 17, 2013, she went out with her boss and friends after work, CrimeOnline reported. Later that evening, they ended up at McKinney III's home.
Later that evening, someone called 911 from the home, but police did not respond after someone else answered the call and said it was not an emergency. But a lawsuit filed in June by Spradlin's family says that was not the only call to Prestonburg police, who recently took over 911 calls from Kentucky State Police at the behest of Floyd County officials.
The second call went directly to then-Prestonburg Police Department Chief Randy Woods, according to NBC News, the lawsuit states. The third call the next morning, again to 911, was described by Floyd County Judge Robbie Williams as “terrifying” without providing any further explanation.
Woods and Williams are among more than a dozen people named in the lawsuit. Woods, who resigned days after Spradlin's killing, Williams and current Police Chief Ross Shurtleff all defended the police's lack of response.
The investigation that led to the charges last month was conducted by Kentucky State Police, which said the McKinneys and Mullins destroyed evidence, including bloody clothing, the handle of the murder weapon and surveillance cameras that recorded the murder.
They also allegedly hid another knife in the couch where Spradlin was found, suggesting that it was the murder weapon.
The three must appear in court again on October 24.
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[Featured image: Amber Spradlin/Facebook]
