Cold Cases in Kentucky

ColdCaseIndex documents 10 cold cases in Kentucky, spanning 1968–2020. 5 of these cases remain fully unsolved. Each case page includes documented details, status, and information on how to submit a tip.

10 Documented Cases
5 Still Unsolved
1968–2020 Year Range
4 Case Types

By Type

7 Homicides 1 Unidentified Person 1 Missing Person 1 Abduction

By Status

5 Unsolved 2 Solved 1 No Conviction 1 Conviction 1 Partially Solved

All Kentucky Cases

No Conviction 2020

Breonna Taylor

EMT Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by police executing a no-knock warrant at her Louisville apartment. No drugs were found. Her boyfriend fired at officers believing it was a break-in. Only one officer was indicted —

Louisville Homicide Age 26
Solved 2019

Savannah Spurlock

Twenty-two-year-old Savannah Spurlock was last seen leaving a Lexington bar with three men. Her remains were found months later at the property of David Sparks, who pleaded guilty to murder.

Richmond Homicide Age 22
Conviction 2015

Crystal Rogers

Crystal Rogers, a 35-year-old mother of five, vanished from Bardstown, Kentucky, in July 2015; her abandoned car was found days later with a flat tire. After a decade-long investigation, her boyfriend Brooks Houck was co

Bardstown Homicide Age 35
Unsolved 2013

Jason Ellis

Bardstown, Kentucky police officer Jason Ellis was ambushed and killed on a highway exit ramp while driving home from his shift. The calculated, execution-style killing has never been solved and is part of a series of vi

Bardstown Homicide Age 33
Unsolved 2013

Officer Jason Ellis

Bardstown police officer Jason Ellis, 33, was ambushed and killed with a 12-gauge shotgun in the early morning of May 25, 2013, after stopping to clear tree branches that investigators believe were deliberately placed on

Bardstown Homicide Age 33
Partially Solved 2010

Paige Valisa Johnson

Paige Johnson, a 17-year-old mother, disappeared from Covington, Kentucky, on September 23, 2010, after last being seen with acquaintance Jacob Bumpass. Her burned remains were found in the woods of Clermont County, Ohio

Covington Homicide Age 17
Solved 1999

Jessica Dishon

Seventeen-year-old Jessica Dishon was abducted from her family's driveway in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. After years of wrongly targeting her uncle, DNA led to neighbor Stanley Dishon.

Shepherdsville Homicide Age 17
Unsolved 1995

Heather Danyelle Teague

Heather Danyelle Teague, 23, was abducted at gunpoint from Newburgh Beach on the Ohio River in Henderson County, Kentucky, on August 26, 1995, an act witnessed through a telescope from across the river. Despite a prime s

Spottsville Abduction Age 23
Unsolved 1983

Ann Gotlib

Ann Gotlib, a 12-year-old Soviet Jewish immigrant, disappeared on June 1, 1983, after riding her bicycle to the Bashford Manor Mall in Louisville, Kentucky. Her bicycle was found abandoned at the mall, but she was never

Louisville Missing Person Age 12
Unsolved 1968

Barbara Ann Hackmann Taylor ("Tent Girl")

On May 17, 1968, a well digger found the decomposing body of a young woman wrapped in a green canvas tarp along U.S. Route 25 near Georgetown, Kentucky. Known for three decades only as "Tent Girl," she was identified in

Georgetown Unidentified Person Age 24