Three people charged in stabbing death of Kentucky woman, but her family says local police are also at fault

She was found dead more than a year ago in the large home of a prominent dentist in eastern Kentucky.

About 13 months later, on July 30, the dentist and his son — Michael McKinney II and Michael McKinney III — were arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing of Amber Spradlin, 39. The circumstances surrounding her killing remain unclear and have cast what one local official described as a “cloud” over the community where she lived.

Authorities have not revealed a motive for the alleged crime and have given few details about Spradlin’s killing. But her family has sought to raise awareness of the case by starting a Facebook group that now has tens of thousands of followers and putting up huge billboards in the town of Prestonsburg, Kentucky, population nearly 4,000, with a simple message: “Justice for Amber.”

They accuse law enforcement of failing to protect Spradlin. A phone call made from McKinney’s home in the hours before Spradlin’s body was found on the morning of June 18 is at the heart of a lawsuit filed by her family earlier this year accusing law enforcement of negligence, obstruction of justice and other allegations.

The call, to a newly established 911 dispatch center, should have triggered an emergency response to the dentist's home, the complaint says. And an alleged call made later that morning was intended to cover up the killing, the complaint says. The complaint identifies the recipient of the call as the man who at the time led the Prestonsburg Police Department.

A third phone call, also made to the 911 center from the McKinney home on the morning of June 18, 2023, was described by Floyd County Judge-Executive Robbie Williams as “frightening.”

The complaint, filed June 4 in Floyd County Circuit Court, names more than a dozen defendants, including Williams, who helped oversee the development of the new dispatch center, and former police chief Randy Woods.

Woods did not respond to NBC News' request for comment. In a court filing, an attorney for Woods denied the allegations in the family's complaint. Williams defended the law enforcement response.

“Prestonsburg has the most modern facility in Eastern Kentucky,” he said in an interview. “It wouldn't have made a difference if KSP (Kentucky State Police) had responded to the call.”

Michael McKinney II, 56, was charged in July with seven counts of aiding and abetting physical evidence tampering in Spradlin’s fatal stabbing, a copy of the indictment shows. He has pleaded not guilty and was released on $250,000 bail, court records show. Neither he nor his attorney responded to requests for comment.

His 24-year-old son has been charged with murder and multiple counts of falsifying documents and is being held on $5 million bail, according to court records. McKinney III has pleaded not guilty. His attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

A third suspect, Josh Mullins, 23, was also charged with multiple counts of forgery and has pleaded not guilty. His attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

On August 14, each of the defendants was charged with an additional count of forgery, as shown in a superseding indictment.

New at work

Spradlin’s cousin and close friend Debbie Hall, who is also the family’s spokeswoman, described Spradlin as someone who cared deeply for her family and friends. In the weeks before her death, Hall said, Spradlin had started working as a hostess at a restaurant owned by the McKinney family.

Hall, 56, said although her cousin had just started working at the family restaurant, she did not know the people now charged in connection with her death.

McKinney II is a well-known dentist in Prestonsburg, Williams said. The website for his practice, Floyd County Smiles, describes him as a member of several national and state dental associations and says he has been practicing locally for three decades.

On July 31, the day after the arrests in Spradlin's case were announced, the Kentucky Board of Dentistry temporarily suspended his license and said it was investigating his fitness to practice.

Last week, the judge in the criminal case ruled that McKinney II could train another dentist while he awaits trial to “save” his business, NBC affiliate WLEX-TV of Lexington reported.

The last time Hall said she was in contact with Spradlin was June 17, when she texted her cousin at 11:30 p.m. to ask if she had left her new job as an entertainer and gotten home safely. Spradlin texted back that she was still working, Hall recalled.

“Be careful when you come home,” she told her cousin.

The next day, Spradlin was pronounced dead in a home south of Prestonsburg after being stabbed multiple times, according to the indictment and a news release from the Kentucky State Police, which investigated the death.

State police have not provided additional details about the killing, and an agency spokesman said he would not release additional information.

A call to 911

After his shift, Spradlin accompanied the McKinneys from another restaurant to the elder McKinney's home south of Prestonsburg, the lawsuit says. Before they left, the younger McKinney had been drinking heavily with a person charged with involuntary manslaughter in the lawsuit, the document states.

Hall identified the person, Roy Kidd, as an old friend of his cousin. Kidd has not been charged with any crime and could not be reached for comment. His attorney declined to comment on the criminal or civil case.

According to Williams, the county executive, between 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. the next morning, a 911 call was made from the home. Williams told NBC News he listened to a recording of the call but declined to comment further because of an ongoing criminal investigation and civil litigation.

According to the lawsuit, a person believed to be McKinney III placed the call and requested emergency assistance.

During the call, someone who appeared to be his father picked up the phone and said no emergency response was necessary, the lawsuit says, adding that while the call should have resulted in a welfare check, no one from the police department went to the home or followed up with the caller.

The lawsuit accuses the Prestonsburg Police Department, which operates the 911 call center, of failing to properly train call operators.

In an interview, current Prestonsburg Police Chief Ross Shurtleff defended the center, citing record response times and saying the facility is running better than ever.

According to Shurtleff, the 911 call from McKinney's home described in the lawsuit initially wanted help removing an unidentified drunk man from the home. After the dispatcher said authorities couldn't do that unless the person was violent, threatening or having a medical emergency, the caller said the person had a cut from a fall, the police chief said.

Immediately after that, Shurtleff said, the owner called and said the injury was not life-threatening.

“He's got a little cut, everything's fine here,” Shurtleff said the caller told the dispatcher.

The call, Shurtleff added, was not intended for someone in need of emergency medical care.

But according to Hall, Spradlin's cousin, she said she listened to the audio recording and the initial description of the injury sounded more worrisome. A caller asked authorities to come get the man because he was bleeding profusely, she recalled.

Williams, the county executive, confirmed that he let Hall, who is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit, listen to the recording. NBC News filed a request for audio of the 911 call with the Kentucky State Police, which did not provide the recording. A spokesperson for the agency did not respond to a request for the audio recording.

Williams said he was pushing for the recording to be released and believed it would exonerate the call center.

“There is a cloud hanging over our community,” he said. “Our citizens need to have confidence in their emergency medical services and first responders.”

A second 'scary' call

Sometime that morning, McKinney II called the number of Woods, then Prestonsburg's police chief, the lawsuit says.

The complaint does not specify what was said or when the call was made, but it accuses McKinney II of calling the chief in an attempt to confuse a potential investigation. Spradlin might have survived if the former chief had taken “prompt corrective action,” the complaint alleges.

Woods' resignation was announced days after the shooting. In a statement released by a local CBS network, he appeared to attribute his decision to resign to a shooting that left three local law enforcement officers dead, including two from his department.

About five hours after the first call to the emergency dispatch center, McKinney II called 911 from his home, according to Williams, who also listened to the call. He described the ensuing conversation as “frightening” but declined to comment further on what was said, citing the trial and the criminal investigation.

The lawsuit alleges that the second 911 call was made after McKinney II called Woods, the former chief, but it does not provide additional details.

Prosecutors allege that after Spradlin's murder, McKinney and Mullins destroyed evidence, including bloody clothing, the handle of the knife used in the killing and a surveillance camera and recording equipment that could have captured the killing, according to the indictment.

The indictment also accuses the defendants of placing a knife in the couch where Spradlin was fatally stabbed in an attempt to “suggest it was the murder weapon.”

The defendants' next court appearance is scheduled for October 24.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com