In the early hours of a Wednesday morning in June, the quiet of a neighborhood just outside Corbin, Kentucky, was shattered by the sound of gunfire. Inside a trailer on Fred Nash Lane, a grim discovery would soon be made. Two men, one of them 28-year-old Joshua C. Wernicke of Keavy, had been shot and killed. The other victim was identified as 47-year-old Denver Nicely, who resided in the home where the incident occurred.
Authorities were called to the scene around 2:30 a.m.
on June 7, 2017, after receiving a report of a possible shooting. Upon their arrival, they found both Wernicke and Nicely deceased inside the residence. The Whitley County Coroner pronounced both men dead at 3:15 a.m. from what were later confirmed to be multiple gunshot wounds. The deaths were quickly classified as homicides, launching an intensive investigation by the Kentucky State Police.
The investigation led police to a suspect, Paul E. Parsons, a 47-year-old man from Corbin. Parsons was initially arrested by Corbin police on unrelated charges of alcohol intoxication and possession of marijuana later that morning. As the homicide investigation progressed, evidence emerged linking Parsons to the double murder. By that evening, Kentucky State Police announced that they had charged Parsons with two counts of murder and one count of first-degree burglary in connection with the deaths of Wernicke and Nicely. He was subsequently lodged in the Whitley County Detention Center.
