No signs of trauma on 20-year-old mother found dead in Lexington

There were no signs of trauma on the 20-year-old woman whose body was discovered on the side of a Lexington road, her mother said Friday.

Beni Sue Parsons said she hopes someone will come forward with information about the death of Kyley E. Palmer, who was the mother of three small children.

Parsons said she did not know what happened to her daughter, but "she would not have been on the road by herself."

"There was no apparent trauma to her body," said Parsons, a pretrial officer for the Administrative Office of the Courts in Jessamine County.

Palmer's body was found shortly after 3 p.m. Thursday on the 6800 block of Leeann Lane, which is off Old Richmond Road, police said.

The cause of Palmer's death had not been determined Friday afternoon, Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn said. An autopsy originally scheduled for Friday was postponed until Saturday at the state Medical Examiner's Office in Frankfort because staffers there were out Friday, Ginn said.

He said his office was looking at the possibility that Palmer could have died from a drug overdose. Ginn said he didn't know how Palmer would have ended up on the road.

Investigators were awaiting the results of the autopsy, Lexington police spokeswoman Sherelle Roberts said.

Parsons said her daughter had lived until recently in Jessamine County with Parsons and the children: son Jase, 4, and daughters Kyndall, 18 months, and Kaebryn, six months. Parsons said she last spoke to Palmer last week, and Palmer was planning to see the children.

Palmer was a loving mother who was very intelligent; she loved to sing and dance, Parsons said.

"She was so talented, and she did love her children more than anything in this world," Parsons said. "She was so smart. She could sing like no other."

Palmer had recently attended cosmetology school, Parsons said.

However, Palmer had battled drug addiction and had twice lived at Lexington's Chrysalis House, which provides substance-abuse treatment for women. Palmer returned to Parsons' house in November, Parsons said.

She said she didn't know whether her daughter's addiction was a factor in her death.

"It's a horrible disease," Parsons said.

Funeral arrangements were pending at Lakes Funeral Home in Berea.

This story was originally published February 22, 2013 at 8:30 AM with the headline "No signs of trauma on 20-year-old mother found dead in Lexington."