Family of Eastern Kentucky woman stabbed to death says 911 didn’t respond fast enough
A little over a week ago, Amber Spradlin was stabbed at least 11 times. Her family now claims the 911 response to the scene of the Floyd County murder was delayed — possibly by a recent change in the county’s dispatching system.
“She was stabbed not once, not twice, not three times — she was stabbed at least 11 times in her head, her neck and her throat,” said Debbie Hall, Spradlin’s cousin. “These monsters slit her throat.”
No arrests have been made in the case. Spradlin’s body was found June 18.
The murder comes months after Floyd County opted to switch its emergency 911 services from state police to a dispatching center run by the city government of Prestonsburg. At a press conference Thursday, attorneys representing Spradlin’s family said they’re working to build a lawsuit and are going to appeal to the governor’s office to move the county’s dispatching services back to state police.
A 911 call was made the night of Spradlin’s murder but law enforcement did not arrive at the scene until a Kentucky State Police detective contacted a Floyd County deputy, according to the press release from attorney Mark Wohlander. The sheriff’s office did not receive a call from 911 that night.
Wohlander said they had not listened to the 911 call or communications on the night of the murder and that they were “staying out of the way” of the police investigation.
KSP Post 9 did not respond to questions about the call or homicide.
According to Hall, Spradlin, 39, was working her job in a local restaurant the night of June 17 and met a friend after her shift. They went to the Seasons Inn, a local motel and restaurant, then ended their night at another man’s home. Police found Spradlin’s body at a residence on Arkansas Creek near the community of Martin, outside Prestonsburg city limits.
“Then, I just don’t know what in the world could have gone so wrong to result in what happened, but there was a 911 call and no one went,” Hall said.
Multiple search warrants have been executed, as well as investigations into cell phones, computers, GPS and more. According to Wohlander, a former federal prosecutor, the public shouldn’t expect an arrest for months.
Why Floyd County changed 911 services
Floyd County originally opted to change what entity handled its 911 services back in December. The county previously contracted with Kentucky State Police to handle emergency calls but in 2022, state police informed the county that the price of those services would increase.
KSP’s dispatching services would “nearly double” in price, said a resolution the Floyd County Fiscal Court passed in December that allowed the county to switch 911 services to the City of Prestonsburg.
The county had made the decision to switch based on the advice of an advisory committee put together to evaluate the change, said Robbie Williams, the Floyd County judge-executive, at the December meeting, the Floyd County Chronicle and Times reported at the time.
Williams told the Herald-Leader he could not comment on the current 911 concerns.
When the county was voting on those changes in December, Keith Bartley, the county attorney, said he had “multiple concerns” with the potential agreement to switch.
The proposed contract for Kentucky State Police was a flat rate $298,000 per year, he said. The proposed, and later approved, contract to outsource the 911 services to the City of Prestonsburg was $165,000 plus the costs of every call the city’s police force responded to outside of the city limits.
The dispatching agreement
According to a copy of that agreement obtained from the Floyd County clerk’s office, Prestonsburg’s 911 center would take calls from around the county. Depending on the nature and location of the call, the center would then alert the appropriate law enforcement agency, whether that be the sheriff’s office, fish and wildlife officials, city or state police.
If a call came in from outside the city of Prestonsburg — like the call that came from the scene of Spradlin’s murder — and no other law enforcement agencies were able to respond, the city’s police department would “assess the priority and urgency of said call for service and will respond in accordance with its applicable policies and procedures,” the agreement said.
If Prestonsburg police “are needed, we will do our best and try to assist, as we always have, and as is reflected in the DISPATCHING CONTRACT,” Les Stapleton, the mayor of Prestonsburg, wrote in a statement posted to Facebook.
“The City of Prestonsburg Police is a stellar organization supported by a stellar 911 Center,” Stapleton wrote. “They offer around the clock police protection 365 days a year, but their priority is, and must be the City of Prestonsburg as they are the taxpayers who fund the department’s existence. With that priority, we still have done our absolute best to assist outside of town when resources allow us.”
Concerns with agreement
Bartley said he believed the judge and the magistrates of the fiscal court had not reviewed the contract with Prestonsburg before they voted to approve it. At the December meeting where the agreement was approved, Bartley told the court that the decision would “endanger” lives in the county, the local newspaper reported.
“I hate that I was right,” Bartley told the Herald-Leader.
Wohlander and J. Dale Golden, another attorney representing Spradlin’s family, said they would be investigating the original agreement and speculated it may have been done improperly.
They also plan to appeal to Gov. Andy Beshear to author an executive order moving the Floyd County 911 services back to KSP. Wohlander said they would also ask Attorney General Daniel Cameron to audit Prestonsburg’s 911 center and agree not to sue the governor if he made an executive order.
“If he had the authority to do it, he would do it,” Wohlander said of the governor. “So we need to know if Daniel Cameron is willing to support him or if he’s going to sue him.”
Others in the county have experienced a delayed response to a 911 call. According to the release, Magistrate Ronnie Akers said during at the June fiscal court meeting he had been waiting over 100 days for a response from 911 and has yet to be responded to.
This story was originally published June 29, 2023 at 5:01 PM.