An arrest has been made in the case of a Kentucky mother who vanished after leaving a bar.
Unidentified human remains were found in Garrard County, Kentucky, according to KTLA 5, and that discovery led to the arrest of a 23-year-old man.
David Sparks was charged with abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence on Thursday. He was booked into the Madison County Detention Center.
The remains were found Wednesday night on a property at Fall Lick Road, which was owned by Sparks’ family. Sparks was immediately a suspect after Spurlock went missing, according to Kentucky State Police, because he was one of the last people to be with her.
Spurlock, 23, was last seen as she left a Lexington, Kentucky bar called The Other Bar with a group of men on January 4. The group went to a home on Price Court in Garrard County, and police interviewed the men seen with her on surveillance video outside the bar, according to WKYT.
Authorities searched the home on Price Court during the initial stages of the investigation and spent weeks looking for her throughout the county soon after she went missing. Police searched the Fall Lick Road property in January but nothing was found at that time, although a car was towed, according to WKYT .
Police told WKYT they received a tip around 5 p.m. Wednesday, and that human remains were found buried on the property with evidence. Kentucky State Police did not identify the remains, but medical examiners in Frankfort, Kentucky will perform an autopsy.
Sparks appeared in Garrard District Court Thursday and entered a not guilty plea. He was also appointed a public defender, according to WKYT . A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday. He’s now being held in the Lincoln County Regional Jail.
Troopers held a press conference at 4 p.m. Thursday to discuss the missing Richmond woman’s case, which just marked its six-month anniversary.
Spurlock is the mother of four children. Her family set up a Facebook page in the hopes of gathering information and offered a $15,000 reward for tips that led to Spurlock’s return, recovery of the body or if anyone was arrested. There has been a “large police presence” connected to the investigation, according to KTLA.
On the six-month anniversary of Spurlock’s disappearance, Savannah’s mother, Ellen Spurlock, told WKYT that she took time to remember the times they spent together.
“We would be grilling out, playing games, hanging with the grandbabies.”
LARGE POLICE PRESENCE on Fall Lick road in Garrard co were Search for Savannah Spurlock has taken place in recent months. More on @WKYT pic.twitter.com/33pmxzBIa5
— Phil Pendleton (@philtvnews) July 10, 2019