PRESTONSBURG, Ky. — New court documents have revealed more details about a disturbing homicide case in eastern Kentucky.
More than one year after 38-year-old Amber Spradlin's death, police arrested Michael McKinney III and charged him with murder. He is accused of stabbing Spradlin several times with a knife at a home in Prestonburg in June 2023.
McKinney's father, Dr. Michael McKinney II, and Josh Mullins have also been arrested and are accused of helping him cover up the brutal homicide. All three men were arrested Tuesday morning.
Friends and family of Spradlin were there, recording video as the suspects were handcuffed and loaded into a police car.
"That was just amazing for me. I felt much better. I really did,” Spradlin’s cousin, Debbie Hall, said.
Hall said her cousin was working as a host at a restaurant owned by Dr. Michael McKinney II at the time of her death. The night she was killed, Hall said she had gone to his house with friends after work.
"She really didn't know them," Hall said. "She had just been around them at the Brickhouse Restaurant- where she worked. They were just hanging out and having drinks."
Now, court documents are revealing new details about what happened the night of June 18, 2023.
Michael McKinney III is accused of stabbing Spradlin repeatedly with a knife and then destroying or hiding the broken knife handle, according to court documents.
The indictment then accuses McKinney and the two other men of an elaborate cover up including hiding or destroying the clothing they were wearing when the murder happened, cleaning Spradlin's blood from a kitchen sink, and then hiding or destroying the surveillance video, camera, and computer that police allege would have captured the murder in the room where she was killed.
"I knew it all. I did. And that's why I've been so angry these last 13 and a half months," Hall said. "To know what these people did and they're walking around here in this little town, and there's some people who are taking up for them."
Spradlin's family said these are details they always believed were true and they have been waiting for police to prove. But with three men now in custody, they're hopeful the wait for justice won't be quite as long.
All three defendants are scheduled for arraignment at 3 p.m. Wednesday in Floyd County, Kentucky.
Michael McKinney III is being held in the Rowan County Detention Center. The other two, Michael McKinney II and Josh Mullins, are both being held in Floyd County, Kentucky.
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