Savannah Spurlock

Case background and investigation

Savannah Spurlock, a mother of four from Madison County, Kentucky, went out in Lexington on the night of January 4, 2019. According to Kentucky State Police, she left a Lexington bar with three people and was at a residence in Garrard County during the morning hours of January 5. She did not return home, and a search that lasted more than six months followed. ABC News and other outlets reported that her youngest children were infant twins.

According to a Kentucky State Police news release, human remains were located shortly before 5 p.m. on July 10, 2019, on Fall Lick Road in Garrard County. An autopsy on July 11 identified them as Spurlock. LEX 18 reported that the discovery followed a report of a foul odour outside the home of David Sparks' parents, and that the grave was in the backyard of that property.

State police arrested David Sparks, then 23, of Lancaster, and charged him with tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse. Sparks was one of the men who had left the bar with Spurlock. ABC News reported that a grand jury indicted him on a murder charge in late August 2019, along with the two earlier charges, and that investigators had described the body as wrapped in plastic bags with the feet bound and buried in a shallow grave. WKYT reported that Sparks was the only person charged in the case.

Sparks pleaded guilty in Garrard County Circuit Court in early December 2020 to murder, tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse. According to LEX 18, he admitted acting alone. The Commonwealth's Attorney told reporters that the prosecution wanted him to admit in open court that he had intentionally caused her death. Authorities did not publicly disclose how she died.

On December 17, 2020, in a hearing held by video link because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sparks was sentenced to 50 years in prison for murder, with shorter terms on the other two counts running concurrently. LEX 18 reported that he will be eligible for parole after serving 20 years. Members of Spurlock's family told reporters after the hearing that much about what happened that night remains unknown to them.