In the late summer of 2016, the community of Beattyville, Kentucky, was shaken by the violent deaths of two of its residents. Among them was James Robert Brown, a 36-year-old man known as a carpenter by trade. His life was cut short on the night of August 4, 2016, in a fatal shooting. The discovery of his body on August 5, 2016, in a wooded area off Hell Creek Road in Lee County, marked the beginning of a complex homicide investigation.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The grim discovery of another local man, Billy Roark, in the same remote area the day before, unraveled a connection between the two deaths. Investigators determined that both men had been shot and killed on the same night in two separate but related incidents. The Kentucky State Police launched an investigation that quickly led to the identification of several individuals believed to be involved in the killings that had so deeply affected the small town.
In the days that followed, law enforcement made a series of arrests. Four individuals were initially taken into custody in connection with the deaths of Brown and Roark. Anthony T. Taylor, 34, and Kasandra K. White, 23, both from Beattyville, were charged with murder and complicity to murder. Two other men, 22-year-old Wesley T. Johnson of Irvine and 32-year-old Kevin F. Kendall of Beattyville, were charged with complicity to murder. The investigation continued to unfold, leading to the subsequent arrests of two more individuals, Jay N. Shoemaker, 39, and Raigan D. Griffin, 22, who were charged with complicity to commit murder in the death of Billy Roark. Additionally, two women, Amy Turner, 31, and Alysia Hensley, 33, were arrested and charged with hindering prosecution, further widening the net of those implicated in the events surrounding the double homicide.
