INFAMOUS: Amber Spradlin

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Speaker 1 Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.
And I'm Britt. And if you've never heard of Amber Spradlin's case, well, then you're not from Eastern Kentucky.

Speaker 1 Because in Floyd County, this case is all people are talking about. For over a year, this could have been considered a whodunit.
Six people went into a house. One ends up dead.

Speaker 1 One is covered in blood and failed to polygraph. The one with scratches left the house right around the time when the murder is thought to have happened.

Speaker 1 Two others don't seem to be talking to police at all. And at least one did talk, but said that she went to bed that night and everyone was fine when she did.

Speaker 1 And a camera that was pointed right at where the crime took place and should have made this an open and shut case is just missing. But some people in town never consider this a whodunit.

Speaker 1 They believe that the person police arrested, the one that's about to go on trial here any day, they believe he did the crime he's charged with, a brutal murder of a young woman who had already been dealt one of the toughest hands in life.

Speaker 1 There are still questions.

Speaker 1 Mainly, why?

Speaker 1 38-year-old Amber Spradlin hardly knew these people. So why would someone cut her throat, stab her in the face, and leave her dead and covered in blood on the couch till morning?

Speaker 1 And why would a police chief unconnected to the investigation allegedly tell Amber's family that she wasn't murdered at all and just died by aspiration? Something in Floyd County stinks.

Speaker 1 And based on what we found, this might just be scratching the surface of what's been happening there.

Speaker 1 So with the trial right around the corner, we're trying to make sense of what happened to Amber Spradlin that night in June of 2023.

Speaker 1 Amber Spradlin had a tough childhood. Her mom and sister died when she was young, and she was barely into her 20s when she lost her dad.

Speaker 1 And as you can imagine, all of that trauma left her with pretty severe and sometimes debilitating anxiety and depression.

Speaker 1 But the family that she did have left, her grandparents, her aunt Missy, her cousin Debbie, they had all really taken Amber under their wings.

Speaker 1 And actually, up until recently, Amber lived with her grandparents.

Speaker 1 But when they two passed away, Amber felt like it was time for her to step out from under her family's family's wings and finally spread her own.

Speaker 1 By 2023, at the age of 38, Amber had finally gotten her own place and found a part-time job as a hostess at a popular restaurant in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, where she lived.

Speaker 1 Now, I mean, this was a bit zero to 60. So Aunt Missy decides that it would be best to keep a close eye on Amber just to make sure she was safe.

Speaker 1 So she had security cameras installed at Amber's new house to do just that. And Amber was great about communication, too.

Speaker 1 I mean, she is nothing if not predictable and keeping a strict routine is super important to her. So she made a call every morning to her aunt at 9 a.m.

Speaker 1 and they would exchange even more calls throughout the day. So when Amber doesn't call Missy on Sunday, June 18th, this bad feeling washes over her right away.

Speaker 1 Missy checks the footage from Amber's place and she can see her leaving for work Saturday evening.

Speaker 1 But as she scrolls through later that night when she knew Amber should be home from work, then beyond all the way till she sees daylight, Amber never shows back up on screen.

Speaker 1 And right away, Missy calls Debbie to tell her what's going on. And Debbie has that same immediate sinking feeling.
Something is wrong and they just know it. Now, Debbie isn't in town.

Speaker 1 She's on this little getaway 90 minutes away with her fiancé, Brandon, but that doesn't stop her from jumping right into action. Brandon's brother is with the Kentucky State Police.

Speaker 1 So Brandon actually calls him to tell him Amber's missing. And about 10 minutes later, he gets a call back.
And what comes out of his brother's mouth leaves everyone stunned. Amber isn't missing.

Speaker 1 She's been murdered. Now, he can't give them much more.
I mean, the only reason he knows anything about Amber's death is because his agency is handling the investigation.

Speaker 1 So Debbie and Brandon immediately hop in their car and fly back to Prestonsburg. And by the time they get there, basically everyone in the family has come together, but no one knows anything more.

Speaker 1 I mean, the wild part is that they're not even supposed to know what little they do. Right.

Speaker 2 That's like just like back channels because they know a person.

Speaker 1 Right. No one in any official capacity on the case has notified them, anyone in their family about what's going on.
But thank God for Brandon's brother.

Speaker 1 So he comes over to give them like the few tidbits of information that he does hear. He tells them that apparently Amber went out the night before and she was murdered by one of the men she was with.

Speaker 1 So desperate for any help they can get, they reach out to a family friend that's retired from the state police and he goes on to like make some calls to see if he can find out more information.

Speaker 1 And what he ends up telling them is even more confusing. Debbie says that this guy called the Prestonsburg police chief, this guy named Randy Woods, and Randy told him that Amber wasn't murdered.

Speaker 1 He's like, she is dead, but she died because she aspirated, which is basically like if food or something like enters your airway and you you stop breathing, like that sort of thing.

Speaker 1 So Chief Woods is saying that this was an accident. And according to Debbie, he told this friend to tell the family that they should all just settle down.

Speaker 2 I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 Settle down? Like, they were told that she's murdered and now, what, she died by accident? Like, this family has every right to not be settled and is getting no information.

Speaker 2 Well, and also, I thought this was a state police investigation. Why is the chief of the Prestonsburg Police Department, different agency, telling them to settle down?

Speaker 2 He's like not even involved, right?

Speaker 1 Well, so this is a very small town and there's a lot of overlap between agencies. Like they often do help each other out.
They respond based on just who's available, it seems like.

Speaker 1 And Kentucky State Police handles a lot of the suspicious death investigations in smaller towns like Prestonsburg and Martin, which is where the house ends up being that she's at.

Speaker 1 But it's a little messy because like just a quick side story. So the 911 service in Floyd County, it was in flux at the time.

Speaker 1 So the Kentucky State Police had handled the 911 services for the county for a long time.

Speaker 1 But for just the year before, county officials decided to switch its emergency call center to Prestonsburg because it would be less expensive. So like this process is just a little bit.

Speaker 2 There's like a lot of like moving parts that like haven't been moving for that long.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 1 So this guy is not in charge and the family doesn't know what to believe like they want to hear something straight from ksp right no back channeling which by the way they've been trying to make contact with someone all day it's their inability to actually get someone official to talk to them that was like necessitating all this back channeling

Speaker 1 but finally not long before midnight missy reaches someone at the state police post and gives them an earful, explaining that they have been hearing rumors all day.

Speaker 1 They just need to know what's going on. No one has been in contact with them.

Speaker 1 And whoever she talks to, like, must not be able to give her the answers then or doesn't want to because they have to call her back. And that happens a few hours later.

Speaker 1 That's when a detective finally gets in touch and says that Amber has been murdered.

Speaker 2 Sorry, this is going back and forth. Like, what is happening?

Speaker 1 They're still not being told anything yet, but she obviously didn't aspirate. And her body is being sent to the state medical examiner.

Speaker 1 So they do say that they'll know more soon, soon and the case is under investigation by the Kentucky State Police. Period.

Speaker 2 And then?

Speaker 1 And nothing. The family is left super in the dark.
They just know that Amber left her place for work Saturday night and by Sunday morning, she's been murdered. Where did it happen? What happened?

Speaker 1 Did the police have suspects? They were left to guess all of that while they waited for updates.

Speaker 1 Little did they know, though, right from the jump, state police actually had all of that and some because they had been working the case since just after 10.30 a.m. that Sunday morning.

Speaker 1 And it all started with a 911 call from the home that Amber would be found in. That home is in the town of Martin, Kentucky, and it belonged to then 55-year-old Dr.
Michael McKinney II.

Speaker 1 The doctor is the one who placed the call, and I'm going to read the transcript of it that was included in a court filing.

Speaker 1 And just an FYI, the public hasn't heard this call yet, so I'm just gonna read it pretty like flat and straightforward.

Speaker 1 I don't know what the tone was, but I do think like the words are important to hear. So, Britt, I'll have you read as a dispatcher, and I'll read for Michael.

Speaker 2 911, where is your emergency?

Speaker 1 Yes, so my name is Michael McKinney. I'm at

Speaker 1 Arkansas Road. Yes, I had some people come back to my house last night, and there's a girl on my couch that's dead.

Speaker 2 Arkansas Creek?

Speaker 1 Yes, so I need some assistance.

Speaker 2 All right, I'll get everybody out there.

Speaker 1 That's my cell, yes.

Speaker 2 Do you know who the female is?

Speaker 1 Roy, what's her name? What's her name? I know it's Amber, but what's...

Speaker 1 And then Roy jumps in here. Amber Spradlin.
Amber Spradlin.

Speaker 2 Is it obvious or was it...

Speaker 2 You think it's drugs or...

Speaker 1 Dude, it looks like somebody's come into the house and fing murdered her. Her fing throat's slit.
There's blood everywhere.

Speaker 2 Okay, about how old is she?

Speaker 1 How old is she? 32, 33.

Speaker 2 All right, I'll get everybody out there.

Speaker 1 Thank you. You're welcome.

Speaker 1 Thoughts?

Speaker 2 Well, I mean, it sounds like he doesn't even know her. Like, he can't give her last name, doesn't really know how old she is.

Speaker 1 Also,

Speaker 2 the phrase, there's a dead girl on my couch. Like, what a cold way to refer to anyone, but to refer to this person in your room.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and listen, theoretically, he should know her because the restaurant that Amber was a hostess at, it's called Brick House and Dr. Michael McKinney owns it.
Oh.

Speaker 1 Now, it's probably not weird that he didn't know her last name and age. Like, he didn't even work at the restaurant full time.
He's a dentist.

Speaker 1 The restaurant is just one of his business ventures that helped make the McKinneys a like wealthy and prominent family in the area.

Speaker 1 And by the way, Eastern Kentucky has one of the highest poverty rates in the country. So if you have money, people know you.

Speaker 1 So first responders may have known what house they were pulling up to when they arrived after that 1030 call was made. Now, Amber is found on the couch, sitting upright.

Speaker 1 Her head is slumped forward and her clothes are covered in blood. And once they get a better look at her, like first responders, they could tell that this was not a natural or accidental death.

Speaker 1 I mean, she had been stabbed and her throat had been cut. And investigators now had four people standing in front of them, and one of them was covered in blood.

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Speaker 1 The man covered in blood is a 51-year-old local guy named Roy Kidd. And after getting a lawyer, here's what he tells state police investigators.

Speaker 1 He'd met Amber years earlier at the medical office in the area where Debbie works as a doctor. Amber volunteered there and Roy was a radiology technician.

Speaker 1 Now, he told investigators that he wasn't really close with Amber or anything, and Debbie backed that up.

Speaker 1 She told us that Roy was nice to Amber, just kind of like joked around with her, paid attention to her, but as far as she knew, like, they didn't even hang out.

Speaker 1 Now, Roy said he occasionally ran into Amber at the brick house where she worked and another bar called Seasons Inn and Restaurant, which was owned by a McKinney family member who he's related to by marriage.

Speaker 1 Okay. But they didn't spend much time together outside of that, except for this particular Saturday.

Speaker 1 He hadn't really planned on doing anything that night, but Amber had messaged him on Facebook and convinced him to come out.

Speaker 1 He wouldn't have known this, but this was maybe her trying to branch out, be more independent. So after she got off work, Amber picked him up at his house and then they headed to Seasons Inn.

Speaker 1 When Amber and Roy arrived, they don't necessarily spend every minute together.

Speaker 1 Michael McKinney was there and Roy says that he spent most of the night with Michael and Michael's brother, Chris, and Chris is the one who owns Seasons. And they're just chatting.

Speaker 1 And Roy says that Amber was talking to people she knew, hanging out with her friends. Of course, they like co-mingled at points.

Speaker 1 Michael even bought Amber and Roy a few drinks, and then Chris gave them a few rounds on the house. Now, the bar closes at 2 a.m., but when you know the owner, no, it doesn't.

Speaker 1 And he said that this big crowd stayed there drinking after hours. That was the norm for seasons.

Speaker 1 But sometime around four in the morning, Michael invited Amber and Roy to come back to his place to keep partying. This isn't a big group that's going back.

Speaker 1 Honestly, it was really just the people who lived at the house.

Speaker 1 So Michael, then his 23-year-old son, Michael McKinney III, or MK, as everyone calls him, a guy named Josh Mullins, who had a room in the basement in the house, and Josh's girlfriend, Lauren.

Speaker 1 So Roy says, you know, they just accept the invitation. But Amber's cousin Debbie told us that Amber was probably so excited to get that invite.
I mean, this may have been a big deal for her.

Speaker 1 She probably felt so lucky. And so she and these these other five people all piled into Michael's Bronco to head to the McKinney house.

Speaker 1 Now, Roy says when they got to the house on Arkansas Creek Road, the party kept going in the basement where Michael had after parties like often. I mean, he kept making everyone drinks.

Speaker 1 Everyone was having a good time. But at some point, Roy had reached his limit and he knew that he had to go to bed.

Speaker 1 He'd been there before, so he knew right where to go upstairs to MK's room where he could collapse on a bunk bed. And he said that when he walked up the basement stairs, everyone was still down there.

Speaker 1 Everyone seemed fine. The next thing he knew, Roy was waking up to daylight.
Now it's between seven and nine, maybe nine, 10, 11.

Speaker 1 Like he's real fuzzy on the details, but he was also in real rough shape. Like he was like covered in his own urine and feces,

Speaker 1 obviously felt really sick. Feces?

Speaker 1 Yep. Dude was like drunk, drunk, and I think he had some medical issues.
But he says that he just wanted to go home.

Speaker 1 So he makes his way out of the bedroom to go look for his phone so he can call someone to pick him up.

Speaker 1 And in his search, he stumbles down the hall to the other end of the house, like it's by like the kitchen. And from there, he could see the back of Amber's head.

Speaker 1 And it looked like she was sitting on the couch in the living room. And so he said he called her name as he was like going around to the front of the couch.

Speaker 1 And as soon as he saw her from the front, he knew why she hadn't been responding because she was covered in blood.

Speaker 1 And he says he rushes over to her, like shakes her, he's like screaming her name twice, but she didn't respond at all.

Speaker 1 And in a panic, he rushes to Michael's bedroom on the same floor, starts like banging on the door for him to wake up. And he says, Michael opens it right away.

Speaker 1 And Roy just said, like, call 911 because something's happened to Amber. And he thought she'd had a stroke or something.

Speaker 1 And so according to Roy, Michael maybe stepped out from his room a bit, like looked Amber's way, and then he steps back in and starts making calls. And Roy can't hear much.

Speaker 1 He's just like sitting at the dining room table in shock. But at some point, he asked where MK was because he didn't want him seeing what was like in the living room.

Speaker 1 And Michael told him that MK left sometime during the night. So like no concern there.
But Lauren and Josh weren't so lucky. At some point, they come upstairs where they all wait for police.

Speaker 2 So they just sat there? Did no one check her pulse or try CBR? Like, I know he's a dentist, but like dentists are still doctors.

Speaker 1 Police literally asked Roy the same question. And Roy explained that that he, I mean, he works in the medical field, right?

Speaker 1 He thought Amber had some kind of hemorrhage or aneurysm because he didn't notice any wounds, he says. All he saw was the blood, which had dried already.

Speaker 1 And he figured that, that she was gone just from her face and her eyes.

Speaker 2 I have so many questions.

Speaker 2 How did he mistake a slit throat for an aneurysm? Like that is not the same at all.

Speaker 1 Actually, the way that she was slumped over, it like hid her neck. And you actually couldn't tell.
Even first responders say that you could not see her throat was slit.

Speaker 1 So that wasn't super weird to them.

Speaker 2 Okay, fine, but if he's claiming the blood was dry and that he didn't really touch her behind like what, shaking her that one time, like, how does that explain him being covered in blood?

Speaker 1 Because he says it isn't her blood. He said that he'd fallen quite a few times the night before.

Speaker 1 I mean, he'd had something like 10 to 14 drinks that night and said he was a nine out of 10 on the drunk scale. I don't know what a 10 out of 10 is for Roy, but he was sloppy.

Speaker 1 So he said he wiped out once while getting out of the Bronco when they first got there. And then later at the house, he fell again in the bathroom and split open his chin.

Speaker 1 And the story probably seems a little wild and far-fetched. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Especially because according to court records, one of the detectives tells Roy that They can't find any blood in the bathroom where he says he busted his chin.

Speaker 1 And Roy's surprised by this because he's like, you know, I didn't clean up after myself. So I don't know what to make of this, but he insists that's what happened.

Speaker 1 He insists that everyone was fine when he staggered off to bed at 6.30. And Lauren, the only other person willing to talk to police that we know of, backs this up.

Speaker 1 She says that Amber was still alive in the living room when Josh and her went back down to the basement where Josh's room was to go to bed. And she says that was around 7 a.m.

Speaker 2 Okay, what about the blood? Does she back up his story about why it was on him? Say anything about someone cleaning it up in the bathroom?

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 So there haven't been a ton of details released about what exactly she told police, but there is something else that backs up Roy's story, something way better than a drunk person's memory.

Speaker 1 Investigators realized pretty early on that there was another call made to 911 from Michael's house that morning. Like four and a half hours before the one about Amber, MK called.

Speaker 1 According to court filings, MK asked dispatchers to send someone to take a family friend to the drunk tank. The family friend that he's talking about is presumably Roy.

Speaker 1 And the dispatcher asked if Roy was like fighting or otherwise like committing an arrestable offense. And MK didn't answer directly, but he added, quote, I'm not saying arrest him.

Speaker 1 Now, I have not heard this call, but Debbie got to listen to the call and she said that MK describes Roy as, quote, really effed up and said that he was bleeding profusely.

Speaker 1 But then Michael gets on the line and says that, like, I've got this under control. No response is needed.
So no one is dispatched.

Speaker 2 I'm sorry. I guess I just

Speaker 1 don't know what to think. Yeah, because

Speaker 2 are we thinking something really happened at six?

Speaker 1 Not if you believe Roy and Lauren. Because Roy goes to bed after this.
Everything's fine. Lauren goes to bed an hour after this call.
Everything's still fine.

Speaker 2 But did either of them mention the first 911 call in their stories?

Speaker 1 I don't know about Lauren, but I know that police asked Roy when they found out about it, like, you know, what's this 6 a.m. 911 call about? And it was total news to him that MK called 911 on him.

Speaker 2 I mean, if he blacked out, I don't know if we can trust anything he says, though.

Speaker 1 I don't think he's saying he doesn't know because he blacked out. Like, he just didn't know that MK did that.
And without hearing the call myself, I don't know if MK's in another room.

Speaker 1 I don't know or if things were just getting hazy for Roy or if he's lying. Roy actually agreed to a polygraph test, but he fails it pretty royally.
I mean, he fails on four substantial questions.

Speaker 1 Did you see anyone stab or cut that woman? Did you stab or cut that woman? Did anyone tell you that they stabbed or cut that woman? Did you help cover up that woman's death?

Speaker 2 Oh, so like all the important questions.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And after he fails, detectives want to bring him in for more questioning, but this is where Roy's attorney shuts it down.
And as far as I know, that was Roy's last interview with police.

Speaker 2 So are Michael, MK, and Josh taking polygraphs and giving like their version of events? Oh, your face is telling me.

Speaker 1 It doesn't seem like it. So there's nothing in any of the court records coming from from them.
But of course, a lot of evidence won't come out until the trial.

Speaker 1 It actually even takes investigators a minute to find MK. I do know that because he wasn't at his mom's house either.
Like he's not there when they show up, not at his mom's house.

Speaker 1 And it turns out that he had gone back to the city of Moorhead, which is like 70 miles away where he went to college.

Speaker 1 But luckily for state police, the evidence that they have been collecting from the scene and Amber's autopsy, that all tells a story of its own. It's just not what anyone expected.

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Speaker 1 Amber's autopsy reveals that her attack was brutal.

Speaker 1 At less than five feet tall, she clearly tried to fight off her killer because she had defensive wounds and they were able to collect biological material from under her fingernails that didn't belong to her.

Speaker 1 But any one of the men in the house that night could have overpowered her. They were all taller, stronger, and of course, whoever murdered her had a weapon.

Speaker 1 Now, we don't have the official autopsy, but what we do know from court records is that she was stabbed a total of 12 times in the face, neck, head, torso, and throat.

Speaker 1 And the killer used so much force that the blade of the knife broke off in her neck and was still there for the ME to find. Oh my God.

Speaker 1 And that was probably a huge shock to anyone in the room when it was found because they had collected a knife from the scene. What?

Speaker 1 A whole intact knife that had been like shoved into the couch Amber was sitting on.

Speaker 1 And now they have this blade, but the missing handle that should have been attached to said blade in her neck was nowhere to be found. Never recovered.

Speaker 2 Wait, so were two weapons used?

Speaker 1 It doesn't seem like it. I mean, again, there's still very limited information about the knife recovered from the couch and what testing might have been done on it and what that might have shown.

Speaker 1 But the way the indictments read, it looks like they think that knife was planted.

Speaker 2 But why? Like that, that doesn't make any sense.

Speaker 1 I know. And I keep going over it in my head.
And I don't know if it only doesn't make sense because we're sober right now, like trying to like piece this together.

Speaker 1 Anyway, put the planted knife aside. The handle to the knife that we care about is missing.
And you know what else is missing? The McKinneys had surveillance cameras around their house.

Speaker 1 And one of those cameras was pointed directly at the couch where Amber was found. According to Lauren, it was there.
There was also one in the basement by the bar area.

Speaker 1 So this case should be over right there.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 It should show exactly what happened and when and who was involved.

Speaker 1 Those cameras and the footage were gone by the time police arrived at the house after Michael's 911 call.

Speaker 1 And so was the digital video recorder and the hard drive that stored the footage from the surveillance cameras too.

Speaker 1 Whatever was on those tapes is long gone now. According to court records, surveillance footage from the area, though, they collect that.

Speaker 1 And it shows MK's blue truck leaving the the area at around 8:30 in the morning. And that is very different from what Roy said that Michael told him, which was that MK left the night before.

Speaker 2 I mean, we knew that was a lie as soon as we found out about the 6 a.m. call from MK to 911.
Right.

Speaker 1 And if everyone's stories are to be believed, big if there,

Speaker 1 the time that he's there at the house and then leaves is in this very critical window. So MK makes that 911 call a little before 6 a.m.
Roy goes to bed, presumably after that.

Speaker 1 Then Lauren and Josh go to bed at 7 a.m.

Speaker 1 And Lauren says Amber is still alive and well and it's just Michael and MK who are now unaccounted for. Then just before 830, MK's truck is driving away and by 1037, Amber is for sure dead.

Speaker 1 Blood on her has already had time to dry.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I am so suspicious of everyone right now.

Speaker 1 I know, which I think is going to be a problem when this case goes to trial. What they need is physical evidence tying someone to Amber's murder.

Speaker 1 It seems like the best piece of evidence they have to work with is that material found under her fingernails when she clearly tried to defend herself.

Speaker 1 So if it was from one of the five other people in the house that night, maybe their DNA is going to show up there. Now, they are able to create a profile from what they got.

Speaker 1 It's not great, but it is enough to tell that it's male. And they can do direct comparisons with it.
So they get the DNA of every man that was in the house that night.

Speaker 1 I'm assuming through a warrant, but that's not specified in the court docs. So Roy, Michael, Josh, and MK.
And something interesting happens when MK goes to the KSP post to give his sample.

Speaker 1 This is just three days after Amber's death.

Speaker 1 And I don't know if this is the first time they're actually laying eyes on him or what, but authorities notice that he has a bunch of scratches on both of his arms.

Speaker 1 Now, I saw one of the photos where you can actually like see his forearm, and it looks like the scratches kind of like start at the inside of the elbow and like move down in the direction of his hand.

Speaker 1 And listen, I'm no expert, but like kind of looks like claw marks.

Speaker 2 What does MK say the scratches are from?

Speaker 1 I don't know if he gives an explanation. Like if he does, that's not in the court records.
My guess is that he's he's keeping his mouth shut based on advice from his attorney.

Speaker 1 But DNA is going to do the talking for him if it's his. They just have to send it off and then wait.

Speaker 1 Now, mind you, while all of this is unfolding in the first couple of days, Amber's family is still mostly in the dark.

Speaker 1 No one from law enforcement ever came to their house for an official notification of Amber's death. And no one came to them right away to get any statements or anything.

Speaker 1 But they weren't just waiting around. I mean, they start hearing rumors about what happened.
They find out who Amber was with the night before and where she was.

Speaker 1 They feel like the McKinneys might have something to do with whatever happened to her.

Speaker 2 Which I think is a fair assumption.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 1 And their biggest fear, though, is that I mean, because the McKinneys are kind of what they consider powerful in the community, they're afraid that Amber's death might just get swept under the rug.

Speaker 1 Debbie told us that people feel that there are two kinds of justice in Floyd County, one for the haves and one for the have-nots.

Speaker 1 I mean, we end up finding out that Michael is actually friends with at least one officer in the Prestonsburg Police Department.

Speaker 1 So even though the case is being handled by a different agency, their faith in a proper investigation is shaky at best.

Speaker 1 So by day two, her loved ones and people from the community were protesting outside of Michael McKinney's restaurant where Amber worked.

Speaker 1 Debbie created a Facebook page called Justice for Amber and people were joining in droves. They went on to hold a candlelight vigil at the alternative school that Amber attended.

Speaker 1 And her family talks to every reporter who calls. They want answers, and they think the best way to get them is through attention.

Speaker 1 So tension is building in the community. And keep in mind, when I say community, Prestonsburg is literally a few streets tucked into a valley.

Speaker 1 a few stores on the highway, a few side streets, mostly these little houses. I mean, the whole population is around 3,500 people.
So it does not take long for rumors to start spreading.

Speaker 1 And the rumor that's spreading isn't just that someone in that house was involved in her murder. People in town believe that police tried to cover it up.

Speaker 2 The Kentucky State Police?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 Though, I mean, the family still does not love how they found out Amber was murdered secondhand. Right.

Speaker 1 But. There was something about

Speaker 1 the call that they got from Debbie's friend, that retired KSP officer, that just like never quite sat right with them.

Speaker 2 And that's the one where the chief of police in Prestensburg told them to settle down.

Speaker 1 And that Amber wasn't murder. Right.
Just she aspirated. Because like, that's specific.
And how would he know?

Speaker 2 It's specifically so different from the truth of what happened. Right.

Speaker 1 Right. So if he was in the know, like that shouldn't have been his answer.
Right. If he didn't know anything.

Speaker 2 Why is he saying that?

Speaker 1 So why is he literally making stuff up to tell a grieving family on a case that he's not working? Like, it's not adding up.

Speaker 1 But you know, there's something else that's not adding up when it comes to who knew what and when.

Speaker 1 So remember Michael's 911 call when he said,

Speaker 1 Dude, it looks like somebody's come into the house and murdered her. Her fing throat's slit.
There's blood everywhere. How would he have known that? Roy didn't know that her throat was slit.

Speaker 1 He told Michael that she had an aneurysm or something. And remember, even first responders said that it wasn't clear that her throat was slit because of how she was like slumped over.

Speaker 1 Even if you were close up, but Michael wasn't even close up. Roy said at most Michael just stepped out of his room and looked over

Speaker 1 toward the couch before going back into his room and making calls. And Roy told police that he never saw Michael check on Amber.

Speaker 2 I mean, he seems pretty sure about what happened on the call, though.

Speaker 1 Yes, he does seem pretty sure of it when he calls 911. But you might have caught me saying that he made calls that morning, plural.

Speaker 2 Not just a call to 911.

Speaker 1 And the first one that morning wasn't to 911. You're not going to believe who it was to when I show you the court docs.

Speaker 2 Ooh, and you have the doc for me?

Speaker 1 No freaking way.

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Speaker 1 Police found out that before calling 911, Michael McKinney made a nearly eight-minute call to Randy Woods, the Prestonburg chief of police. Which, like, for what possible reason?

Speaker 1 So Michael doesn't give one to investigators that we know of, but Chief Woods does. Chief Woods tells state investigators that when Michael called, he just instructed him to call 911.

Speaker 2 Call 911. Did that take eight minutes?

Speaker 1 Right. They have an eight-minute call.
Yeah. Now, maybe Michael was in shock.
I mean, no one ever expects to be in a situation like this. Maybe he panicked.

Speaker 1 He called law enforcement by dialing his friend's number, who's in law enforcement instead of 911. Like in his mind, it could have been the same thing.

Speaker 1 And maybe for eight minutes, Chief Woods was calming him down. We don't know.

Speaker 1 But it would sure be weird if he spent that long calming his friend down, but then basically told the the family to like cool it because she aspirated.

Speaker 1 While then Michael goes on to tell 911 that her throat was slit.

Speaker 2 And Roy didn't overhear anything.

Speaker 1 He says no. He says that he knew he was making more than one call, but he suspected that Michael was calling his ex-wife first.

Speaker 1 I don't know why, but he says he didn't know it was the chief and like he couldn't hear much from the call.

Speaker 2 Could Chief Woods have been instructing Michael about what to do?

Speaker 1 Only two people know what was said in those eight minutes. We reached out to Chief Woods, but we have not heard back yet.
What I will say is, I think there's something interesting to remember.

Speaker 1 Floyd County had just changed its 911 call system, remember, a few months before Amber's murder.

Speaker 1 It is possible that when Michael called 911, he expected Prestonsburg dispatch to send Prestonsburg officers.

Speaker 2 Would it have made a difference?

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 One of the things I think about, and I might have mentioned this before, but like I recently went to a coroner's conference this year, and the educator there was warning against something that he sees a lot where responding officers or like a coroner with no death investigation training, because like, by the way, in some places, like to this day, you don't need any training to be a coroner.

Speaker 1 Just like. Got to be a high school graduate with a pulse.
I'm not saying that's like the case here, but like, anyways, someone with no investigative training can show up in some places to a scene.

Speaker 1 And if that person says it's not suspicious, that's the end of the line. No criminal investigators come out.
It is just over and done with.

Speaker 2 But Michael said on the call with 911 that her throat was slit.

Speaker 1 I know that doesn't make sense to say if something sketchy was going on. So I'm not saying that in this case.

Speaker 1 I would pay good money to see first responders reports who was dispatched, who showed up, when, why,

Speaker 1 but none of that has been released yet by the state police. Because Amber's family has some suspicions about the way that they think things went down and what was supposed to happen.

Speaker 1 But without documentation, I can't report on it. Not yet, at least.

Speaker 1 I can tell you that if someone was trying to cover this up, Debbie's family believes it wouldn't be the first cover-up to happen in Floyd County, not even the first for their family.

Speaker 1 Remember how I told you that Amber grew up with her grandparents because both of her parents died? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, her mother, Sharon, died in 1988 after she got locked in a Prestonsburg bar called the Wildcat Lounge and climbed up on a chair to break out a window.

Speaker 1 The story is that the chair collapsed and it left her stuck hanging from the window with her feet a few inches off the floor. So she suffocated and it was just considered an accident.

Speaker 1 The family feels that there wasn't much of an investigation at all. But Debbie says the family never bought that explanation.

Speaker 1 I mean, the bar owners swore that they had checked the place before closing that night and nobody was inside. And there's other cases that Debbie mentioned, like Kristen Smith, who was 33.

Speaker 1 She was found dead in her home by her boyfriend on June 2nd, 2021 in Martin, the same tiny city of around 500 where the McKinneys live. And not just any boyfriend.

Speaker 1 A friend we spoke to who did not want to be named says that she was dating a local official. She was a mom of two kids and about to graduate from college.

Speaker 1 She'd worked really hard to complete a diploma that would mean that she could give her kids the kind of life that she wanted them to have without having to rely on anyone else.

Speaker 1 The same friend told us that after numerous instances of domestic violence, Kristen was leaving. And the next morning, she was found dead under what her family thinks are suspicious circumstances.

Speaker 1 According to WSAZ, her death was ruled a suicide. Her friend also told us that people in Floyd County just see this as kind of the way things happen in those parts.

Speaker 1 The same day Kristen was last seen alive, a woman named Candy Green Gonzalez, who was 36, was reported missing from Prestonsburg. Her family had last seen her the day before.

Speaker 1 Rumors online that we can't confirm say that Candy was dating the son of a local law enforcement officer.

Speaker 1 Now, one of Candy's relatives did tell us it's disturbing how much happens in Floyd County that just seems to get swept under the rug and is never talked about again.

Speaker 1 Women missing, women suspiciously dying, and no one convicted, especially if they have pull at the courthouse.

Speaker 1 People close to both women say that their cases weren't really investigated and they believe that the politicians and law enforcement in the county close ranks to protect their own.

Speaker 1 And there was almost no media coverage on these cases to expose any issues. And that is what makes Amber's case different.

Speaker 2 And her case is so clearly homicide. Like there's no way to even try to call it something else.

Speaker 1 You mean like aspiration? Right.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but still, even with everything they have, at that time, months go by while KSP waits for the forensic testing they did to come back because the lab is backlogged.

Speaker 1 And in that time, no one is arrested. Which like, how? But who? Like, you have six people in the house that night.
I mean, one's dead. One is covered in blood and failed to polygraph.

Speaker 1 The one with scratches on his arm left the house during like a very critical window of time when the murder is thought to have happened.

Speaker 1 One talked to police, but said that she was asleep and everything was fine.

Speaker 1 And two others don't seem to be talking to police at all, unless you count an off the books call to the chief of police before 911 was called. So who do you arrest?

Speaker 1 Like it can't be all of them, not without proof. The community is outraged by this, though, understandably.

Speaker 1 And at some point, members even rented a billboard that says justice for Amber, and they paid $3,000 every three months to keep it up. But finally, according to Debbie,

Speaker 1 eight months later, eight months, eight months later, the results finally start coming in.

Speaker 1 The blood on Roy's shirt

Speaker 1 is Roy's blood. No trace of amber's.
And that DNA under her nails, not Roy's and not Josh's. Okay.

Speaker 1 Now, the type of testing they have, they were working with YSTR testing, which looks at genetic markers on the Y chromosome. And those get passed down from father to son.

Speaker 1 So all males along a direct paternal line have the same marker. So good news in this case, they have a match.
It's McKinney DNA. Bad news, investigators can't say which one.

Speaker 1 It could be Michael, or it could be MK,

Speaker 1 or it could be any other male in that familial line for that matter.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but there wasn't any other family in the house that night.

Speaker 1 Very true.

Speaker 1 So with investigators knowing that they were the only two men from that family in the house and knowing that MK is the one who wasn't there when police police showed up, and that he's the one who had scratches on his arms when they met with him three days after the murder, MK is the one who is finally charged with Amber's murder.

Speaker 2 The one, so just him.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they charge MK with murder and what will eventually be eight counts of evidence tampering. But Michael and Josh get hit with evidence tampering charges too, and they all plead not guilty.

Speaker 2 And Roy and Lauren?

Speaker 1 Nada, which like was a little surprising to me. Not necessarily the Roy part based on just like how he cooperated and what we know from all like the pieces.
I mean, I, he said nine out of 10 drunk.

Speaker 1 I think he was like a full 10 out of 10 drunk and asleep when whatever happened happened.

Speaker 1 But I am having a hard time figuring out like where Lauren is for all of this or why she's not a part of it, but Josh is. Yeah.
If they both went to bed together, like she said. Yeah.

Speaker 1 But the idea put forward in the indictment is that MK killed Amber.

Speaker 1 And then with Michael and Josh, quote, removed, concealed, or destroyed, end quote, the handle on the knife used in the attack, MK's clothing, and the camera and digital recorder containing surveillance footage, the hard drive that would have contained footage of the murder, all of that.

Speaker 1 The indictment also alleges that Amber's blood was cleaned up from the kitchen and the laundry room sinks.

Speaker 2 And this is all before Michael ever makes any calls, like while Roy is still sleeping.

Speaker 1 Presumably. Now, one thing I know I mentioned is that Roy said that Michael opened his bedroom door like right away when he starts pounding on it.

Speaker 1 It seems to me like Michael was already up or like maybe had never gone to bed.

Speaker 2 So did Roy interrupt a plan or was Michael waiting for someone else to find Amber?

Speaker 1 Like I have no clue. I don't even think we can say for certain that Michael wasn't sleeping.

Speaker 1 But I think if evidence was destroyed, like the prosecution is alleging, it probably happened before Roy woke up. And listen, there is still a lot we don't know.

Speaker 1 I mean, I get the feeling what has been released is only scratching the surface of what police have.

Speaker 2 I mean, yeah, like motive. How did this night spiral so like badly and quickly and all of it?

Speaker 1 That is the thing with this case. This is the big question

Speaker 1 still,

Speaker 1 but I'm not sure we're ever going to get a satisfying answer. I mean, like, so often when it comes to violence against women, you see a sexual motive.

Speaker 1 But Amber was clothed from what we know, and there was no sign of sexual assault that was in the records. And the prosecution hasn't suggested that that's their theory either.

Speaker 1 The only thing that has been talked about is some worrisome behavior by MK that got uncovered in KSP's investigation.

Speaker 1 According to court docs, MK allegedly has a history of violent outbursts and mental instability.

Speaker 1 Now, he doesn't have a criminal history, but what investigators hear paints a really disturbing picture.

Speaker 1 According to court records, a guy named Timothy Likens told investigators that he had gone to the McKinney house one night after drinking at seasons, you know, the usual.

Speaker 1 And he alleges MK pulled out a knife and said that he was going to kill everyone there. And like 20 people were over.
So everyone fled the basement, according to Timothy.

Speaker 1 And then Michael wrestled the knife away from MK.

Speaker 1 And Roy even told investigators that he was talking to MK the night of the murder and MK was confiding in him him that he was experiencing suicidal thoughts and that he'd been hearing dark voices telling him to do bad things.

Speaker 1 Now, Roy says that he was really concerned and he tried to comfort him, but like, given how much he drank, Roy was in no shape to like help anyone. Right.

Speaker 1 But interestingly, MK's defense is not combating these charges with any kind of insanity defense.

Speaker 2 Which, I mean, I feel like that would be a struggle to pull off given that 6 a.m. call he made.
Like, you're lucid enough to call 911 about Roy, like, worried about his state.

Speaker 1 Right. So if he wasn't experiencing an episode of psychosis and he did murder Amber, like police allege and the prosecution alleges, then what was that call?

Speaker 1 Was this premeditated? Was he trying to frame Roy with that call? I mean, it might be totally unrelated, but pointing the finger at Roy does seem to be the strategy for MK's defense.

Speaker 1 We actually got MK's defense attorney, Stephen Romind, on the phone. It's one of the first times he's spoken publicly about the case.

Speaker 1 And one of the first things he pointed to for us was that first 911 call from MK about Roy being drunk and belligerent.

Speaker 1 He also pointed to police testimony to the grand jury that indicated Amber was upset at Roy for being so drunk and embarrassed by his behavior in front of her boss. So, what, he killed her?

Speaker 1 MK's lawyer didn't say that. He's just like pointing to things that he thinks we should know and stuff I assume he's going to be sharing with a jury.

Speaker 2 Wait, what about MK's dad lying about when MK left? Like, he's the only one who left that morning.

Speaker 1 Well, we get that from Roy. I mean, Roy is the one telling police that Michael said that.

Speaker 1 And MK's lawyer says that anything that comes out of Roy's mouth is worthless in his mind. He told us that Roy's cell phone was right beside Amber's body on the couch.

Speaker 1 I mean, remember, he'd gone looking for it that morning, and that's when he found Amber.

Speaker 1 And MK's attorney also points to the fact that Roy failed his polygraph test on, remember, those pretty substantial questions.

Speaker 2 And I'd also like to point out that Roy is the only one who actually took a polygraph.

Speaker 1 That we know of, correct. Crime junkie life rule, number four, never take a polygraph.
But of course, those results aren't going to be admissible in court. Right.

Speaker 1 MK's attorney says that investigators basically ruled Roy out because they thought that Roy was too drunk to kill someone, which he disagrees with.

Speaker 1 Oh, and the missing surveillance and camera equipment. Yes.
We asked him about that, and and he says that he'll address that at trial.

Speaker 1 But he says that it had been removed weeks earlier because it was going to get replaced. As for why MK didn't cooperate with investigators, MK's lawyer says investigators implicated him immediately.

Speaker 1 And so he wisely exercised his Fifth Amendment rights.

Speaker 2 And what about the DNA? Like the DNA does not look good for his client.

Speaker 1 He said it's the weakest DNA evidence he's ever seen in connection to a case and that it could have come from anything like laying on a couch in someone's home.

Speaker 1 And listen, I don't have details about this DNA, but I do assume there was very little if all they could do was YSTR, right?

Speaker 1 If there would have been more, they could have gotten a sample to do a direct comparison with both of the McKinneys, which I think would have helped their case against MK, right?

Speaker 1 If it ended up being his.

Speaker 1 I think that's going to be a point that MK's lawyer may be able to win with a jury. But guess who else we heard from?

Speaker 1 Right before we got ready to do this recording, Michael McKinney, MK's dad, got back to us and he had some interesting things to say.

Speaker 1 He accused Amber's family and supporters of using a quote paid social media campaign, end quote, to attack him and his family, which he said is an attempt for conviction in the court of public opinion.

Speaker 1 And he also said that the campaign made it so that Roy wasn't investigated, even though that Michael says the evidence against Roy is overwhelming.

Speaker 1 And he points to some of the same factors as MK's lawyer did, like the failed polygraph, the fact that Roy eventually did stop talking to investigators.

Speaker 1 Michael says the campaign against his family is trying to, quote, contaminate the jury pool.

Speaker 1 And he also accused the prosecution of trying to delay the trial so that there is more time to influence prospective jurors.

Speaker 2 What evidence is there left to be tested?

Speaker 1 Apparently, there are at least 33 more items that need to be analyzed for DNA. Remember, the crime lab in Kentucky is seriously backed up.

Speaker 1 It took eight months for that first batch of results to come back. So the lab just didn't get it done in time.

Speaker 1 Now, the trial was set for December, but on October 20th, the prosecution asked for a continuance so they could test more evidence.

Speaker 1 The judge granted that request, canceling the December 1st trial date. And basically, they ordered everyone to come back in that day for a pre-trial conference instead.

Speaker 1 And so I assume that they'll have a new trial date after

Speaker 1 We are going to be live streaming the whole trial on the Crime Junkie Jury YouTube channel.

Speaker 1 So, for our listeners, come show up for Amber and her family, drop a comment, let them know that you're there supporting them. I know it will mean so much.

Speaker 1 Now, until then, MK is in jail awaiting trial. Josh and Michael are both out on bail and house arrest with conditions.
Like they can't kind of go about their business.

Speaker 1 Like, Michael was still allowed to train other dentists while awaiting trial to save his dental practice. And he's still allowed to go to his restaurant.
And what about the Chief Woods of it all?

Speaker 2 Like, if it were me, I would want to dig deeper into figuring out whether there was any kind of attempted cover-up here.

Speaker 1 This is the other interesting part. So Chief Woods ended up resigning from the Prestonsburg Police Department five days after Amber's murder.

Speaker 1 Now, in a statement quoted in local media at the time, he said that his resignation was because of the emotional toll of a June 2022 shooting in Floyd County that killed three police officers.

Speaker 1 Ashley. The resignation was right before the anniversary of the shooting.
So that is his official reason. Got it.

Speaker 1 Anyway, in June 2024, Amber's family brought a civil suit against multiple public officials and private individuals, including Chief Randy Woods, also the Prestonsburg Police Department, the McKinneys, Roy, and others, all alleging negligence, obstruction of justice, civil conspiracy, and other wrongdoings.

Speaker 1 And this was before they ever knew that there was going to be criminal charges. So that case is still pending.

Speaker 1 A major part of the suit is what we mentioned about the 911 system transfer in Floyd County from the KSP to the city.

Speaker 1 And the lawsuit claims that that switch left the county without adequate emergency coverage.

Speaker 1 And they say that contributed to Amber's murder, because if someone had gone to the McKinney's house when MK first called 911 on Roy,

Speaker 1 she might still be alive. It has been beyond hard for Amber's family to watch the men accused of being involved in her death go about their day-to-day lives over the last couple of years.

Speaker 1 It's their hope that when they have their day in court, that they're going to see justice for Amber.

Speaker 1 Because at the end of the day, they want to ensure that Amber herself never gets lost in this story. She endured so many tragedies and she was just finding her footing.

Speaker 1 And for things to end like this for her, like, just doesn't seem fair. And they don't want her death to be for nothing.

Speaker 1 So they're pushing for a bill to be reintroduced in the Kentucky state legislature that would increase funding for crime labs so that investigators and families don't have to go through long waits that they had to in Amber's case.

Speaker 1 It would be called Amber's Law. And they're getting a lot of support from the community where they live and across the nation.

Speaker 1 Debbie tells us that she thinks it's because so many people in that area identify with Amber, with her struggles and her losses.

Speaker 1 And as information came out after she was murdered and people caught wind of an alleged cover-up, it really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

Speaker 1 So Debbie hopes Amber's case brings attention to the other loved ones of other missing people or people who may have died suspiciously in the county.

Speaker 1 And she actually took the Facebook page that she created for Amber and put a call out in there asking for other people who knew of other cases that needed attention to like drop it in there because she wants Amber's story to give other people some kind of hope and some fight, a feeling that if they can get out there and stand up and stick with it, maybe there's going to be some change or justice for them too.

Speaker 1 And people have been commenting with names. So many names.
It is totally overwhelming. And our team is looking into some of those cases now.

Speaker 1 So, you know, we'll keep everyone updated as we dig into those.

Speaker 1 Debbie wrote in that same Facebook post that she had been hoping and praying that Amber would help bring attention and justice to others who need it.

Speaker 1 You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkie.com.

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