3 people charged in Amber Spradlin's death, but family says police at fault, too

The arrests of a Kentucky dentist Michael McKinney II and his son a year after Amber Spradlin's fatal stabbing follow accusations of police missteps.

She was found dead more than a year ago, in the large home of a well-known eastern Kentucky dentist.

Roughly 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 a local official described as a “cloud” over the community where she lived.

Authorities haven’t disclosed a possible motive in the alleged crime, and they’ve released few details about Spradlin’s killing. Her family has sought to raise the case’s profile, launching a Facebook group that now has tens of thousands of followers and placing massive billboards around Prestonsburg, Kentucky, population nearly 4,000, with a simple message: “Justice for Amber.”

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

The call, to a newly established 911 dispatch center, should have prompted an emergency response to the dentist’s home, the suit alleges. And a call alleged to have been made later that morning aimed to cover up the killing, according to the lawsuit. It identifies the call’s recipient as the man who at the time led the Prestonsburg Police Department.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/amber-spradlin-michael-mckinney-stabbing-kentucky-rcna166983

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