PRESTONSBURG, Ky. — We are beginning to get the first account of what took place at the home of Dr. Michael McKinney in the hours before and after Amber Spradlin was found murdered.
Spradlin was found stabbed at least 11 times in the neck and head on June 18, 2023.
McKinney; his son, M.K.; and family friend Josh Mullins are all charged with eight counts of evidence tampering for allegedly trying to cover up the crime. M.K. McKinney is charged with her murder.
M.K. McKinney’s attorney, Steven Romines, has filed a motion seeking the full lie detector results for Spradlin’s friend, Roy Kidd, who was with her that night. As part of his motion, he filed transcripts of a roughly 95-minute interview Kidd gave to police the day after she was killed.
SEASONS INN
In the interview, Kidd describes the events of the preceding night, saying Spradlin had talked him into going to Seasons Inn with her and coming to pick him up. He told police had drunk about four cans of beer before Spradlin arrived, then drank mixed drinks at the bar, consuming between 10-14 drinks in total through the night and following morning.
After the bar closed, a group including him, Spradlin and the McKinneys stayed for a couple of hours, continuing to drink with the staff. Then they all got into Michael McKinney’s Ford Bronco and went to his house, where they continued drinking at a bar in the basement.
McKINNEY’S HOUSE
The group left at the home were Kidd, Spradlin, the McKinneys, Mullins and his girlfriend, who is identified only as “Lauren” in the transcripts.
In the interview, Kidd said everyone was having a good time and there were no problems. He was apparently unaware that M.K. McKinney had made a call to 911 prior to the murder, requesting that Kidd be removed from the house, before Michael McKinney got on the phone and said that was not necessary.
Kidd said he went to bed sometime between 6 and 6:30 a.m., June 18, and that was the last time he saw Spradlin alive, behind the bar with the McKinneys, Mullins and Lauren.
THE DISCOVERY
Kidd told police he woke up sometime between 9 and 11 a.m. because he had soiled himself.
He described walking into the living room and seeing Spradlin from behind, sitting on the couch. At first, he thought she was up and awake, so he went around to the front of the couch, and that is when he discovered she was dead. He said Spradlin was covered in blood, which had saturated the couch.
When he saw that the blood had dried and her eyes were fixed, Kidd said he knew she was already dead. He further said he could not see any wounds on her and he assumed she had had a stroke or hemorrhage, and he didn’t know she had been murdered until after police arrived and told him.
Kidd said Michael McKinney’s door was about 10 feet away, and he immediately began pounding on it. He said McKinney opened the door within seconds, and Kidd told him to call 911 because something had happened to Amber.
CALL FOR HELP
Kidd said he could overhear bits of the calls McKinney made and that it seemed he made one or two personal calls before calling 911, but he couldn’t hear enough to make out what was said.
During the commotion made when Kidd was pounding on McKinney’s door, Mullins and Lauren came upstairs from their basement bedroom.
At one point, Kidd said he asked McKinney where M.K. McKinney was. He said Michael McKinney told him he had left sometime during the night.
Kidd said he went into a dining room and waited alone until police began to arrive. McKinney, Mullins and Lauren waited in a different room, and Kidd said the house was silent until authorities arrived.
LINGERING QUESTIONS
During the interview, detectives grilled Kidd for not doing more for Spradlin, asking him why he didn’t check for a pulse or try to perform CPR. He responded that he could tell she was dead from the dried blood and fixed stare.
They also questioned why Kidd didn’t call 911 himself when he found Spradlin, or even after he noticed McKinney making personal calls first. He only responded that he panicked and was in shock.
They also questioned him extensively about an accident he had that caused him to cut his chin and bleed significantly.
But the detectives also had questions about Michael McKinney’s behavior.
After Kidd noted that McKinney hadn’t taken more than a step out of his bedroom before going to make the phone calls, he allegedly told the 911 dispatcher, “I’ve got a murdered girl in my house.” The detective asked how McKinney could have known she had been murdered, if Kidd had not said she had been murdered and still believed at that time that she had died of natural causes. Kidd had no answer for that.
Mountain Top News has not heard the 911 calls and cannot verify those were the actual words McKinney used.
They also questioned why McKinney didn’t come out of his room to check on Spradlin or try to do something for her. Again, Kidd could not answer.
MORE INFORMATION
A full copy of the transcripts is reprinted below:
