In the late summer of 2015, the community of Big Creek, Kentucky, was unsettled by the violent death of 32-year-old Sherry Collins Joseph. On August 13th, a distressing 911 call was made by her 21-year-old boyfriend, Isaiah Stidham. In his initial report to dispatchers, he claimed that Sherry had attacked him with a knife, and he had been forced to shoot her in self-defense.
However, the story he presented would soon unravel, revealing a more calculated and grim sequence of events.
Responding to the call, law enforcement found Sherry Collins Joseph with fatal gunshot wounds. As investigators began to piece together the moments leading up to her death, inconsistencies in Stidham's account emerged. He had sustained knife wounds, which he initially presented as evidence of the struggle he described. However, under questioning, Stidham's narrative shifted dramatically. He eventually confessed to fabricating the story of a knife attack, admitting that the wounds on his body were self-inflicted in an attempt to mislead the investigation and support his false claim of self-defense.
Further investigation revealed that Stidham had shot Sherry Collins during an argument. He was subsequently arrested and charged with her murder. Friends and acquaintances of Sherry remembered her as a friendly and kind person, adding to the sense of loss within the small community. The case proceeded through the legal system, and while originally facing a murder charge, Isaiah Daniel Stidham was ultimately convicted of first-degree manslaughter. Court records indicate that on June 3, 2019, he was sentenced to five years in prison for the crime that occurred on that fateful August day in Clay County.
