FLOYD COUNTY, Ky. (WMDJ) – After 13 months of rumors and conspiracy in the highly publicized murder of Amber Spradlin, Kentucky State Police arrested three individuals on Tuesday following indictments from the Floyd County grand jury, hoping to dispel the myth felt by the community that the case has been politically influenced.

Floyd County Commonwealth’s Attorney Brent Turner addressed the matter in a prepared statement saying, “The public has understandably questioned why it took so long to present this case to a grand jury, but the entire reason for the delay is the KSP forensic lab’s inability to complete test quickly.”

Turner laid the blame with the current state legislature for lack of funding the state agency receives to clear a backlog of forensic tests.

Turner said case involves, “an extremely large amount of evidence requiring forensic testing” and he did not feel a grand jury could be convened until enough proper forensic evidence was available.

Turner indicated in his release that his office started receiving test results over the past six months, but only received results of the most critical items needed for prosecution within the last few weeks. He also praised the investigators with Kentucky State Police and those involved in the forensic testing for the long hours of work in the case.

Michael K. “MK” McKinney III, 24, of Martin, was arrested in Morehead on charges of murder and seven counts of tampering with physical evidence. He was lodged in the Rowan County Detention Center.

His father, Dr. Michael K. McKinney II, 56, of Martin and Josh “Square” Mullins, 23, of Martin, were arrested in Floyd County and charged with seven counts of tampering with physical evidence in the case. Both were lodged in the Floyd County Detention Center.

According to the indictment, the individuals removed, concealed or destroyed the handle of a broken knife. Other details to the tampering charges include:

• Removed, concealed or destroyed the clothing MK was wearing when Spradlin was killed.
• Removed concealed or destroyed a surveillance camera that would have captured Spradlin’s murder from the room in which she was killed.
• Removed concealed or destroyed a digital video recorder which contained footage from surveillance cameras in the home where the murder occurred.
• Removed concealed or destroyed the hard drive from the only desktop in the home which contained info about the surveillance cameras that were on the wireless network in the home.
• Cleaned Spradlin’s blood from the kitchen sink.
• Cleaned Spradlin’s blood from the laundry/utility room sink.