Richmond Police Dept. (RICHMOND, Ky.) — The remains of missing Kentucky mom of four Savannah Spurlock have been recovered, authorities announced Thursday, as a man was arrested in connection with the case.
The remains were found behind a home in Garrard County, about 30 miles south of Lexington, on Wednesday night, and were positively identified on Thursday, according to the Kentucky State Police.
That property had been searched several months ago, but no body was found then, Kentucky State Police spokesman Trooper Robert Purdy said.
Spurlock’s cause of death has not yet been determined, Purdy said.
Spurlock, 23, went missing in January after leaving a bar in Lexington with three men, according to authorities.
David Sparks, 23, one of those three men last seen with Spurlock, was arrested on Thursday and charged with abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence, authorities said.
Sparks’ family owns the property where her body was found, Purdy said.
An official told ABC News in February that they knew the three men took Spurlock to a home in the rural county, but not “when, how she left, or what happened to her after that.”
All three men were interviewed, but not charged at the time.
Authorities on Thursday did not discuss the possibility of additional charges.
“Over the coming days detectives will continue their investigation into what led to the death and disappearance of Savannah Spurlock,” Purdy said at a news conference on Thursday.
Spurlock’s mother, Ellen Spurlock, called her daughter’s disappearance her “worst nightmare” in an interview earlier this year. She told ABC News she spoke to her daughter at about 3 a.m. on Jan. 4, while she was with the three men, and nothing seemed unusual.
“When I asked her where she was, she said she was in Lexington,” Ellen Spurlock told ABC News. “She promised she would be home later that morning. She did not seem out of the ordinary.”
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