Not Just A Memory: Michael Gorley

Michael Gorley is another missing person in Kentucky. I found his mother, Sandra Hasty, on Facebook and we have had a few conversations. I took from our conversations that Sandra is a huge advocate for Michael and the other missing loved ones and their families in Kentucky. She also made me aware that Kentucky has 261 missing and unsolved murder cases. This is a huge epidemic. I will be updating this page with more information but this is his place holder. If you have information on Michael's disappearance, please contact the law enforcement agency on his poster.

Not Just A Memory: Savannah Spurlock

I have been searching for Savannah Spurlock as well. Her aunt, Lisa Thoma, wrote Savannah's story and it is posted on their Facebook Page. I will include it here. Lisa wrote:

This is the story of Savannah Spurlock, a 23yr old mother missing from Lexington, KY area since January 4, 2019. This is information as of June 8, 2019 that has been released to the public from family and police regarding her case. Savannah went missing at the age of 22, five weeks after giving birth to twins. Her four sons are age 4, 2, and 6 months. At the time she went missing, Savannah lived with her mother Ellen and her younger sister. Savannah attended EKU and intended to study health administration. She was currently taking a break from school due to her pregnancy. Shortly before she went missing, she spoke with her grandmother about her hopes to secure a job and get her own apartment for her and her children. She had been going through a rough time before her disappearance. 

The evening of January 4, 2019, Savannah had a female friend over to her home in Richmond, KY. She borrowed her mother’s car around 9pm, and she and her friend traveled to Lexington, KY to meet up with a male friend. It was not uncommon for Savannah to go to Lexington, which is a larger city. Savannah left her mother’s car at the male friend’s home. The three of them traveled in his car to The Other Bar in Lexington by 10:30pm. Savannah left a larger purse in his car that contained keys to her mother’s car, along with other personal items. She carried a small cross body satchel purse into the bar with her. The three friends met new people at the bar that night. Savannah’s male friend needed to be up early the next day, so he decided to leave early. Savannah and her female friend continued to hang out with the new people they had met. At some point later in the evening, Savannah and her female friend got into an argument. Her friend decided to leave The Other Bar, and Savannah decided to stay. Both her male and female friend have been cleared by police.

Around 2:30am Savannah was seen on surveillance leaving The Other Bar with 3 men. Her mother woke up around 3am and realized that Savannah was not yet home. She called Savannah, and Savannah hung up the phone on her. Savannah FaceTimed back a couple minutes later from a moving vehicle and told her mother she was fine. She told Ellen she would be home within the next several hours. Ellen thought that Savannah was in the front seat with 2 people in the back seat hollering at her. Police later determined that Savannah was traveling in the front passenger seat of an SUV, with one male driving and another male, who was in the rear passenger seat. The third male got into a black, Chevy S-10 pickup truck. Savannah did not seem to be in distress at the time of the FaceTime call, although Ellen could tell she was intoxicated.  

Police confirmed that Savannah was taken about 40 minutes away from Lexington to a rural house in Garrard County, KY with the three men she had met at the bar. One of the men last seen with Savannah said that she left the home later that morning, but he didn’t specify how. Police have said they cannot confirm his account. Lt. Col Rodney Richardson has said, ”We do know her last location was at a residence in Garrard County," Richardson said. "We were told that she left that location. That's just something we can't confirm right now.” Savannah’s phone last pinged around 8:30am and has not been turned on since. Police are unsure how the phone was turned off.

At this point, Richmond, KY police are leading this investigation as a missing persons case, with the help of KSP and the FBI. The three men’s names have not been released at this time. They were initially questioned and released, but they have also not been cleared in this case. Police have conducted numerous search warrants, including 2 homes in Garrard County. They towed a car from one of those locations. Police did an interview on June 3, 2019 and stated, “Just to say that the case is very active is an understatement.” “The investigators have a pretty good idea what’s going on. It’s just a matter of proving what you know. picking up all the pieces to the puzzle and putting it back together,” Outside of the media attention, police have worked and continue to work steadily under the radar. The detectives are passionate about figuring out the truth. They are protecting details so as not to jeopardize the case.  

As family, we feel strongly that the last people seen with her know the full story. And there may be people close to them who also know the full story. We pray that someone will come forward and tell the full truth, so that her children, family, friends, and supporters of her case can properly grieve in her passing or rejoice in her safe return.  Will someone please end this nightmare?

Not Just A Memory: Brookelyn Farthing

Brookelyn Farthing came to my attention when my aunt, Sara Murphy, sent me a message to let me know she went missing very close to her home. Brookelyn is very close to the age of my very own girls. I began searching for Brook in the Berea area where she was last known to be. Come back for an updated article on Brookelyn Farthing. You can see my introduction video for Brookelyn here.

Not Just A Memory: Lydia Ann Perkins

I first heard about Lydia from my daughter, Angel when she was dating Lydia's brother, Justin.  There is not a lot of information on Lydia's case, from what I gathered, the police had wrote her off as a runaway for nearly two years before upgrading her case to endangered missing. Here is the information on Lydia in the Charley Project. This is the information from their website.

Not Just A Memory: Ky missing & Unsolved Murdered

Not Just A Memory:

Kentucky has a not so hidden growing epidemic. We are losing our children, both young and old to episodes of missing and unsolved murders. These are our children, our flesh and blood, sweat and tears, they are more than a memory. Currently, Kentucky has 261 missing and unsolved murdered loved ones. This blog will be dedicated to keeping the cases alive and trying to help find details or tips that will help bring these people home or solve and unsolved murder of someones loved one. Help bring justice and closure to these ever grieving families. Each page will include an address and phone number of who to contact with details or tips to help with that missing or unsolved murdered person.

What has caused this epidemic? Possibly the growing drug epidemic plays a huge part it our ever growing list of missing and unsolved murdered here in Kentucky. The other major sector that plays a huge part is the filthy depraved under world of sick sadistic people who pray on children and others for their sexual desires and deprivation. Even greed plays a role and some of the missing are, no doubt, victims of human sex trafficking.

Earlier this year, when my circumstances changed, I decided I wanted to help look for the missing girls in Kentucky. I had two in mind in the beginning, I was looking for Lydia Perkins and Brookelyn Farthing. Early in February, Savannah Spurlock was included in the search and for a while she completely took over my searches and was constantly invading my thoughts. I have a desire to find them all. In my search, I found Sandra Hasty, mother of Michael Gorley who is also missing. Sandra opened my eyes to the extent of Kentucky's missing and unsolved murdered epidemic. She got me thinking and I decided I wanted to go back to blogging and trying to figure a way to do my part in keeping these cases known and help find people who can bring these people home or solve their murders. 

I will be bringing new posts for each of the missing and unsolved murdered in Kentucky. If you have information to assist in finding or recovering a missing person or solve a murder, please contact the person listed on that page. It is important we all come together and find these missing people and solve their cases. I will be adding new post on my youtube channel that will go with each blog post. you can find my YouTube channel here: Youtube Channel.

If you have a case you would like to see mentioned or featured here, please leave a link or picture and information in the comment section below.

Diary of a Fat Lady - Finding Me

According to my doctor, I should weigh 145 pounds for my height, maybe as much as 155 with my frame. I have been searching for myself since I became disabled and no longer able to work in 2008. I had a real identity crisis. I have always been a workaholic and worked two full time jobs for many years. Losing the ability to work, I no longer knew who I was and where I belonged in the world. Although my weight is not the reason for my disability, it contributes to in many ways. One day I woke up and realized I could not find myself because there was just too much…me! I began to work on changing my lifestyle because I had tried diets many times over and lost weight, only to gain it back, plus a few extra pounds, once the diet was over. I realized I needed to make a change.

                At the point I began to work on this problem, I weighed in at 383 pounds. I am sure at some point I was over 400 pounds because that is my scale limit and for a long time, when I stepped on the scales, instead of getting a weight, I got and E. Now if you want to know what it is like to be fat, take two pre-teens and an infant and carry them on your back and belly for a complete day. At the end of the day you will see how hard it is for a fat person to get around. This is the equivalent of what I carry every day. Since I was already in school, working on another degree, I decided to take Nutrition and see if I could learn easier ways of losing weight. My disability limits me on exercise, so I am doing this the very hard way.

                I decided I wanted to have the gastric by-pass done in order to help me lose enough weight to have some necessary surgeries I need on my knees. Once I contacted the Bariatric Center, they signed me up for an appointment with a dietitian, which also helped with jump starting my weight loss. In order for insurance to cover the gastric bypass, a person has to go through a six month diet and exercise program with their doctor and have documented results. Today I finished my last visit of the six month program. I will be heading for the surgery soon, but first I have to have some more tests done. I am waiting on appointments for my tests and to see the surgeon to go over the procedure I will be having.

                So, why change my lifestyle if I am having surgery anyway? Simple, it is to keep myself healthy after the weight loss. Contrary to what people think, it is possible to cheat the surgery and gain back the weight. Changing my lifestyle will guarantee that I will stay healthy and remain at a decent healthy weight. On my visit today, I found that I lost 8 more pounds. I have been losing 5 – 8 pounds a month and keeping it steady with the exception of once, when I gained a few pounds and had to lose them again. When I began, I could not sit in a chair with arms on it. I simply did not fit, and if I tried to sit on part of the chair, it caused unbearable pain. Two months ago, I had the opportunity to sit in a regular chair with arms on it and the amazing thing was I fit in it. Comfortably! This was a very pleasant surprise and it gave me the incentive to work even harder.

                Today I realized I am finding myself, I am finding out I am a much stronger person than I ever thought I could be. I have a new outlook on many things. I have some hobbies and interests that I want to pursue while waiting for my surgeries that will allow me to go back to work. I am going to work on getting a schedule to get myself back into the groove of working so many hours a day. During this time I will work on finding myself. I am working on a few books, I need to get down to brass tacks and get their rough drafts done. I am also working on drawing, and taking classes for Graphic Design. I want to be truly ready when it comes time to go back to work as the new me. After finding myself.

Saving Grace - Mysterious Places

                              I have always been curious by nature. A lot of people say I am just downright nosey. It has been my experience that if you want to know something you have to ask or look to find the answer. I often asked questions that would make my parents frown or other people to tell me to mind my own business. I didn’t mind, I simply learned to go about things in a more discreet manner. I would sit quietly and listen. I learned lots of things this way.  However, curiosity got me in trouble on more than one occasion.

                Our house sat very close to the duplex next door, so close the roof overhang of the two houses nearly touched. A full grown adult could stretch their arms out and put their hands on the side of each house simultaneously. We called it an alley, it was fun to play in there because it was shaded from one end to the other from the roof overhangs. It was a lot cooler there than anywhere else in the yard.  I also learned that in the summer time, the windows were always up and if you sat quietly on the ground beneath the window you could hear everything the adults were saying. Mother always kept the windows open and a fan in each one. It gave you a cross flow of air in the living room since we did not have air conditioning then. She had one fan blow in and the other blow out so it circulated the air much better. The fan facing the alley blew out so the sounds came out with it. It was very easy to hear to things being said out there. I often found answers to why the adults were acting so secretive and stop talking when one of us would come into the room.

                When they would suddenly shut up when I came into the room, I would ask my mother a question, it didn’t matter what, just to make her think I came in with the question, and once she answered it I would turn around and go through the kitchen and out the back door. She would simply think I was going back out to play. I would go around the house and silently head down the alley and sit beneath the window. Before long, Mother would continue talking and I would know why she was upset or what she was planning that she didn’t want us to hear. Yes, I would have got spanked had my mother ever found out, or maybe she would have played a horrible trick on me, saying something so I could hear it just so it would excite me or worry me enough I would have to come to her and admit I heard what she said, but that never happened.

                On this particular day, I was not out to find out what my parents were talking about, they were not even home. One of my older sisters told me she found something interesting and wanted to show it to me. She took me down the alley to midway and showed me a round hole. I had seen the hole many times but I did not know what it was or why it was there. Hot air was blowing out of the hole. She stuck her hand into the hole and it disappeared to the elbow.

                “What’s in there?” I asked.

                “Nothing, it hits a wall.” She answered.

                “Where is the air coming from then?”

                “I don’t know.”

                “Air has to come from somewhere, don’t it?” I asked.

                “I think so, but nothing’s there.”

                “Let me try.” I pushed her aside enough so I could stick my hand in the hole the way she did. I stuck my hand into the hole and noticed the sides were smooth. My hand hit the back of the hole which was a wall of some sort. I noticed though that there was a bend there. It was not simply the back of the hole, but a bend and a turn.

                “It bends and goes around to the side.” I told my sister.

                “Where does the bend lead?”

                “I don’t know.”

                “Well check.” She whispered to me. I know she was thinking the same thing I was, there was something secretive about this hole in the side of our house.

                “You check.”

                “No you, you’re hand is already in there.”

                I sighed and against my better judgment and fear, I turned my hand into the bend. Suddenly, I heard a funny sound - dddzzziiittt. I suddenly felt a burning sensation and pain in my finger tips. I jerked my arm back pulling my hand from the hole and screaming out. I turned around and my sister was gone. I caught a glimpse of her rounding the front of house. I looked down at my hand and noticed it was covered with blood. My fingers burned and hurt. I shook my hand and blew on my finger tips. I was scared, there were wide gashes in most of my finger tips and blood was running down quick. I wrapped my hand in the bottom of my t-shirt and ran for the house. I went to the bathroom and ran cool water over my hand but it did not stop the bleeding. I knew I was going to be into trouble.

                I ran through the house and up the steps to my room. My fingers were still burning. I flopped down on my bed and blew my fingers. I was trying to think of what to do, how to stop the blood and keep the incident from my mother. It was hot and sweltering upstairs, and soon I began to sweat. I turned on the fan that was perched in the window and let the air blow across me. I was crying then. I stretched out on my bed, blowing my fingers and somehow, I fell fast to sleep. In mind sleep I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I thought I was dreaming.

                The sudden gasp brought me from my sleep and I realized I was not dreaming when I heard Grandma Grace gasp again. I did not think about the scene she must have come upon. My head was lying on my hands so the cuts were not visible. The cotton of my pillow case had soaked in the blood from my fingers and spread out. I am sure it looked like much more than it actually was, and the blood looked as though it were coming from my head. All of this happened in a matter of seconds, so I hadn’t even moved. Grandma was sure I was dead. She leaned over me and placed her hand beneath my nose to check if I were breathing.

                I turned my head towards her then and she sighed with relief.

                “What happened to you, child?” She nearly screamed, sitting on the bed next to me.

                I sat up then and threw myself into her arms and sobbed. I showed her my hand. I explained the whole situation and told her how it burned. She soothed me and rubbed my hair until I quit crying.

                “Grandma, Momma is gonna whip me when she gets home.”

                “No, she won’t.”

                “Yes she will Grandma, you don’t know Momma.” I began to explain. I don’t know why I was afraid of mother spanking me. She rarely ever raised a hand to me. Daddy would have been angry and I was quick to remind her of this whenever I thought she was going to hand out that kind of punishment.

                “I will take care of it, she will never know.” Grandma said. I don’t know if she actually deceived my mother about the incident or if she deceived me and told mother about it later. If she did, they probably got a good laugh, but Mother has never mentioned it to me. She simply took my hand and my bloody pillow and led me down the steps. Once we were downstairs, she glanced around the house. There wasn’t a soul in sight so she led me out the door and up the street to her house. There she took off the pillowcase and put in the sink with some cold water and a little bleach. Once she had it soaking, she sat me in the kitchen with a couple of cookies and glass of kool-aid while she searched for the things she needed.

                By the time I was finished with my cookies, Grandma returned with a first aid kit and began cleaning my fingers and putting Band-Aids on the ones with cuts. Once she had me all fixed up, she had me change my shirt into a clean one and she put the bloody one in the sink with my pillow case. She scrubbed the blood out of my shirt and my pillow case and then tossed them into the washer and washed them. While they were drying, we went out into her yard and I watched as she pulled weeds out of her roses. I loved Grandma’s roses. She cross pollinated them to create different colors. She was very good at it and she filled her yard with roses of many colors. The fragrance blew up and down the street when the wind blew.

                When my shirt and pillow case was completely dried, I changed back into my shirt and Grandma sent me back down the hill to my house. I was very grateful she took care of the situation. I was young and my fears were great. I had envisioned bleeding to death and by the look on Grandma’s face when she found me, she had envisioned it too. I never forgot this lesson, but it did not curb my appetite for learning about places or things. I continued to be curious and I continued to search out new mysterious places.