LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The body of a missing 10-year-old Kentucky boy was found less than 20 miles away from his home Tuesday night. Now his mother is behind bars.
Jayden Spicer was found buried in a remote area off Canoe Road in Breathitt County, about 19 miles—a roughly 30-minute drive—away from his home on Panbowl Branch Road where he was reported missing.
Kentucky State Police Trooper Matt Gayheart held a news conference Tuesday evening to provide an update in their search. Gayheart said Spicer’s mother, Felicia Gross, 33, has been arrested in the case.
Gross is charged with manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and falsely reporting an incident.
“We ask that you continue to pray for a community that grieves during this tragic loss,” Gayheart said in a statement.
Spicer was reported missing just before 9:30 a.m. last Wednesday, Aug. 6 in the Jackson community, KSP said. At the time of his disappearance, state police said it was believed Spicer left his home “during the overnight hours or early morning.”
Police used aircraft, drones, K-9s, sonar and boots on the ground search efforts—with help from volunteers—to find Spicer, covering broader areas around where he went missing in an attempt to find him.
FOX 56 reported the community had raised over $3,000 for information that might lead to Spicer’s return.
The day after her son was reported missing, Gross provided a written statement to the media asking for prayers and for anyone with information to come forward.
Investigators believe she wrote the statement knowing what had happened to her son.
In an update Tuesday evening, KSP said investigators “received new information” in Spicer’s disappearance and conducted a new search in a “heavily wooded area” along Canoe Road in Jackson. Spicer’s body was found at 3 p.m. buried at the scene, where he was pronounced deceased.
“While this is not the outcome we had hoped for, we certainly are grateful that we were able to bring him out of the woods today,” Miranda King, commonwealth’s attorney, said during a news conference Tuesday evening.
Spicer’s remains are being taken to the medical examiner’s office in Frankfort for an autopsy. Gross is being held at the Kentucky River Regional Jail in Hazard as KSP shifts from a missing person investigation into a criminal investigation.
KSP said additional details “cannot be released at this time” in order to protect the integrity of the investigation.
This story may be updated.
