PRESTONSBURG, Ky. — Prosecutors in Kentucky revealed new details this week that they said link a prominent dentist and his son to the brutal killing of a restaurant hostess at their home last year and the alleged effort to cover up the murder.
The evidence, detailed in a filing opposing bail reduction for murder suspect Michael McKinney III, includes DNA found the under the victim’s fingernails, photos of what prosecutors described as “numerous suspicious” scratches on McKinney III’s forearms and a transcript of a 911 call the suspect’s father made that shows he knew the nature of the victim’s injuries — “even though they were not discernible to anyone else at the scene,” the filing states.
The filing also states that before Michael McKinney II called 911 at 10:30 a.m. on June 18, 2023, to report that Amber Spradlin, 39, was dead on his couch, he called a close friend — the police chief of nearby Prestonsburg.
Phone records show the call lasted eight minutes, according to the filing. When authorities questioned the chief about the call, he “would only say that he told Defendant McKinney to call 911,” the filing states.
In August 2024, 13 months after Spradlin was stabbed at least 12 times, McKinney III, 24, was indicted on charges of murder and multiple counts of complicity to tampering with evidence. He pleaded not guilty and is being held in lieu of $5 million bail.
McKinney II, 56, and a third defendant, Josh Mullins, 24, were indicted on tampering charges and have pleaded not guilty. Both were released on bail and appeared at a bond hearing Thursday.
A lawyer for McKinney II did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The former police chief, Randy Woods, did not respond to a request for comment.
During Thursday’s bond hearing, a lawyer for the younger McKinney challenged some of the evidence included in the filing, including the scratches and statements his client allegedly made to a cousin hours before the killing saying he heard what prosecutors described as “dark voices” that “told him to do bad things.”
Defense attorney Steve Romines said the scratches were not defensive wounds — McKinney III already had the injuries when Spradlin was killed — and he questioned if the cousin’s account was accurate.
In the filing, prosecutors did not identify a possible motive in the killing. The fatal attack likely happened after 7 a.m. — after a night of drinking at the McKinneys’ home — and it was so violent that the blade broke off in Spradlin’s neck and was only discovered during the autopsy, according to the filing.
Roy Kidd, the cousin who provided the “dark voices” comment to authorities, was among those at the home the morning of the killing. He told authorities that after he awoke at 10 a.m. and discovered Spradlin’s body he told the elder McKinney that she was “dead and covered in blood,” according to the filing.
McKinney II, a well-known dentist who’s practiced in Floyd County for decades and was allowed to return to work while out on bail, “merely glanced at her from the door before going back in his bedroom and making phone calls,” the filing states. “According to Kidd, Defendant McKinney did not even go over to look at her to see what happened.”
Kidd has not been charged with any crimes in connection with Spradlin’s killing, though in a court filing earlier this month, the younger McKinney’s lawyer said he had been deceptive in interviews with authorities about Spradlin’s death.
In a statement, Kidd’s lawyer called the allegation false and said his client has fully cooperated with authorities.
A half-hour after Kidd found Spradlin’s body, McKinney II called 911 and said it looked like somebody came into his house and slit her throat, according to a transcript of the call included in the filing. But because of how Spradlin was positioned on the couch, the injuries to her neck were not visible at the time and authorities who initially responded to the scene weren’t certain how she died, the filing states.
It wasn’t until hours later, after her body was examined at the coroner’s office, that those injuries were seen, according to the filing.
The filing states male DNA found in fingernail clippings from Spradlin matched the McKinney father and son — it could have belonged to either — and the document accuses the elder McKinney of telling “numerous” people that his son had left their home overnight, before Spradlin was killed.
Yet surveillance video captured McKinney III’s truck leaving at 8:30 a.m., the filing states.
The filing notes that after the killing, investigators learned from the McKinneys’ housekeeper that there had been a camera in the living room pointed at the couch where Spradlin was killed.
That device and a second camera in the basement disappeared after the killing, the filing states.
The filing also provides a new detail about a second 911 call made in the hours before the elder McKinney’s call alerting authorities to Spradlin’s death.
In the earlier call, which is the subject of a lawsuit filed by Spradlin’s family, the younger McKinney asked if a “family guest” — a person the bail reduction filing says is an obvious reference to Kidd — who was extremely intoxicated could be taken to the drunk tank.
“I’m not saying arrest him,” McKinney III said, according to the bail reduction filing.
According to the family’s lawsuit, McKinney II then got on the phone and said no emergency response was necessary. The suit alleges the call should have prompted a wellness check and follow-up from the Prestonsburg Police Department, which operates the 911 call center, and it accuses the agency of failing to properly train call takers.
Current Prestonsburg Police Chief Ross Shurtleff has defended the department’s response, saying the call wasn’t for someone who needed emergency medical attention.
Tim Stelloh reported from Alameda, California, and Rachel White from Prestonburg, Kentucky.
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