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Remains found of missing Kentucky mom Savannah Spurlock, man arrested: Police

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Remains discovered in search for missing woman
Richmond Police Department
ByMark Osborne and Emily Shapiro
July 11, 2019, 9:05 PM

The remains of missing Kentucky mom of four Savannah Spurlock have been recovered, authorities announced Thursday, as a man was arrested in connection with the case.

The remains were found behind a home in Garrard County, about 30 miles south of Lexington, on Wednesday night, and were positively identified on Thursday, according to the Kentucky State Police.

That property had been searched several months ago, but no body was found then, Kentucky State Police spokesman Trooper Robert Purdy said.

Spurlock's cause of death has not yet been determined, Purdy said.

Savannah Spurlock is seen here in an undated file photo.
Richmond Police Dept.

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Spurlock, 23, went missing in January after leaving a bar in Lexington with three men, according to authorities.

David Sparks, 23, one of those three men last seen with Spurlock, was arrested on Thursday and charged with abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence, authorities said.

Sparks' family owns the property where her body was found, Purdy said.

David Sparks, 23, was charged with abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence on Thursday, July 11, 2019, in relation to the disappearance of Savannah Sparks in Lexington, Ky., in January 2019.
Madison County (Kentucky) Detention Center

An official told ABC News in February that they knew the three men took Spurlock to a home in the rural county, but not "when, how she left, or what happened to her after that."

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(MORE: Missing mom vanished after 3 men took her to home in rural Kentucky county, police say)

All three men were interviewed, but not charged at the time.

Authorities on Thursday did not discuss the possibility of additional charges.

"Over the coming days detectives will continue their investigation into what led to the death and disappearance of Savannah Spurlock," Purdy said at a news conference on Thursday.

The FBI and Kentucky State Police located human remains connected to the disappearance of Savannah Spurlock on Wednesday, July 10, 2019. The 23-year-old mother went missing in January.
Kentucky State Police

Spurlock's mother, Ellen Spurlock, called her daughter's disappearance her "worst nightmare" in an interview earlier this year. She told ABC News she spoke to her daughter at about 3 a.m. on Jan. 4, while she was with the three men, and nothing seemed unusual.

"When I asked her where she was, she said she was in Lexington," Ellen Spurlock told ABC News. "She promised she would be home later that morning. She did not seem out of the ordinary."

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