True Crime with Kimbyr - Smoldering Secrets: FIRE Hid A Sinister FAMILY MURDER! The Frensley Family Murder: Part 2

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

As emergency personnel fought to save Christie Friendley’s life, investigators at the scene began piecing together a chilling puzzle. Found barely alive in her backyard pool, Christie had severe burns and deep cuts—injuries that didn’t match a simple house fire. Who would want to harm this devoted mother of three? And where were her children during the chaos? True Crime with Kimbyr dives deeper into the tangled web of family conflicts, custody battles, and a shocking betrayal that would leave an entire community reeling. Stay tuned as the mystery unfolds in this gripping true crime case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Karen Walker and another woman began to administer CPR and Kayla who was miraculously still alive. Karen remembers how Kayla was struggling to breathe. She was trying so hard to take a breath and gurgling. Deputy Kenneth Butz was there watching this play out, and he knew there was nothing that could be done. The damage to Kayla was too severe. CPR was unsuccessful. When an emergency personnel arrived, they put a defibrillator pack on Kayla's heart, but it failed to revive. her. Kayla only lived for a few more minutes. Her siblings were still trapped inside the burning

house. The fire destroyed the entire home, unfortunately burning Courtney and Ethan's bodies. There was no way for them to be saved. Firefighters from three different counties were at the scene, Linton, Herden, and Caledonia. They were finally able to put out all the flames. By 523, emergency responders had called Goodwin funeral home for the coroner, John Mark Vincent, to come down. Eventually, Kayla's body was transported to Dr. Diedra, Shilukbrier, the regional medical examiner for Western Kentucky for an autopsy. Meanwhile, the state's fire marshal's office was being contacted to begin an arson investigation to find out the fire's cause and origin. The state police were also involved to investigate Christie's attempted murder while they await the medical examiner's autopsy

report for Kayla's cause of death. Half a mile of military road, as well as some property surrounding Chrissy's home was barricaded off with barrels, cones, and yellow crime scene tape. They wanted to preserve the scene and search for evidence, which included a possible weapon. At this point, no names had been released to the public. After all, Chrissy's children were minors. And with all three deceased and all three having different families, the notification process was more complicated. It was taking more time, and they would not release any information until Kayla Courtney and Ethan's fathers were contacted and notified. However, neighbors knew they were aware of who lived in that home. They knew with three people being left

inside the home and Christy at the hospital. It had to be Christy's kids that died. So they were talking to the media right away. They were providing names, even though it was an unofficial record. Already, newspapers were posting pictures of Kayla, Christy and Courtney in less than 48 hours. However, little was known about what happened in that home. And there was an issue. Once the fire was put out, they had to locate and remove Courtney and Little Ethan. That would turn out to be a very difficult task.

The issue was preservation. Since this was no accident, each victim needed to have an autopsy conducted, and if the remains were destroyed, that wouldn't be able to be done. So the state called upon forensic anthropologist, Dr. Emily Craig. She arrived on scene to attempt

recover the badly charred bodies of Ethan and Courtney and keep them as intact as possible. That is incredible that this can be done. And Dr. Craig explained the remains and the associated debris in this case were so incredibly fragile, so she knew they were only going to get one chance to do it right. But she had come up with a plan. By the next day, Thursday, October 16th, Dr. Craig was at the house to carry out this plan. She carefully and meticulously dug a pathway to the bodies to preserve the crime scene. Ethan was discovered first. There was a lot of debris on top of him,

including a bed and a ceiling fan, which were directly on top of his tiny body. Courtney's remains were discovered just 10 feet away from her brother. Now for the even harder task of removing each piece of what was left to them, mostly skeletal at this point. But the doctor managed to recover both bodies, and they were sent to the medical examiner's office in Madisonville. Where the same doctor was working on Kayla's

autopsy, asked Dr. Craig for her assistance. She needed assistance in the skeletal examination when it came to Ethan and Courtney, which is what Dr. Craig was an expert in. What a process that they had to go through. By Thursday evening, state police spokesperson Dean Patterson confirmed that Kayla's death had been ruled a homicide. Meanwhile, police and now homicide investigators were canvassing this area, asking neighbors if they had heard or seen anything that day or any other day that they thought would be important for this investigation. On the day of the crime, all agencies in this area were told that they should be on the lookout for a bloody man wearing a direct TV shirt. One of the volunteer firefighters came forward. His name was Matt Ledford. He was only 18 years old,

but he was a close friend of Chrissy's 17-year-old daughter, Kayla. He had a daily routine of coming by her house saying hello, seeing what everyone was up to. October 15th was no different. He stopped by Christie's around 4.30 p.m. He parked his car, walked to the front door, and knocked. When no one answered, he opened the door and stepped inside and he said, I may have stepped inside maybe a foot, a half a foot, that's it. And then he listened to see if you could hear anyone. He didn't, and he didn't even call out or anything because all he could hear was the sound of the swimming pool pump motor. He turned around and left and drove to Hopkinsville. But just as he got in town, he was paged to come out to the fire, and he was shocked that it was at Christie's house.

As he arrived back there, he was devastated when he saw the body of his close friend, 17-year-old Kayla Williams, lying near the house, lifeless. Matt stayed at the scene into the next morning. He only left for about an hour in the middle of the night. Wow. I can't believe that he was there when this maniac was inside that house. If only he would have called out, but how incredibly sad. We honestly do not know if his presence would have made much of a difference. He could have been killed too.

However, Matt was able to provide a big lead. He told police that when he pulled up to Christie's that day, there was an unfamiliar vehicle parked in her driveway. It was a champagne-colored 2004-2006 extended cab Chevrolet Silverado truck with a trailer hitch. Not only that, Matt remembered the first three letters of the license plate. Yep. It was H-E-Y. That's why I remembered it because it spelled, hey, the things that you never know are going to be important, but it was. They had a description

of a white man who may work for direct TV that drove an extended cab truck with a license plate that started with the letters H-E-Y. Now authorities were searching for this vehicle. Meanwhile, Courtney and Ethan's autopsies were underway. Both deaths were ruled homin. The damage to 5-year-old Ethan's thoracic bones, which I'm probably saying wrong, which are the vertebrae, the 33 individual interlocking bones that form your spinal column. They showed that force had been used during this attack on his body. One of his ribs was completely split in half. These children were brutally murdered. Ethan was stabbed 11 times, with one of the wounds penetrating his heart.

His sister, 14-year-old Courtney McBurney-Frennely, was stabbed at least four times. Three of the wounds were in her chest and one in the neck, just like her sister Kayla, who was also stabbed in the neck, along with the slash across her throat. A serrated steak knife had been broken off at the handle during Kayla's attack, and that blade was found inside her sweatshirt. All three of these children's deaths were caused by sharp force injuries, so they did not die because of this fire.

The fire was most likely started in an attempt to destroy the remains and any evidence of the murders. By Friday, military officials were now on the scene. By that time, Ethan's father, Jeff, had been notified of his son's murder, and he was the one that requested the military's presence. By Saturday, the newspaper revealed that Kayla's father was now on his way from California to Kentucky after being contacted and informed and interviewed about his daughter's murder. Doug said that he was angered after he learned about all of the deaths.

He said to think that someone went in there and did what they did to all three of those kids. They're an absolute monster and I hope they find him." He explained that Kayla had recently moved back in with Christy and that she was the type of girl who would walk into a room and you would think she was an absolute angel in minutes. Courtney's father was also interviewed. He defined his relationship with his daughter as distant and he said he regretted that and he no longer had a way to reconcile with her. He stated that he hadn't been in her life for a while, but that he really appreciated other family members for spending so much time with her. He added that he didn't see why this happened. There doesn't seem to be a reason for a vendetta.

It seemed to be a random act of violence. And the whole town was heartbroken for these children and their mother. Police spokesperson Patterson told the media that it was probably one of the most horrendous crimes that he'd ever been involved with or known about in that area. but they still did not have a suspect. However, they were following every lead. The biggest one, he told the media, was the apparent association between the killer and direct TV cable company. Patterson said that the direct TV corporate office

was fully cooperating with the investigation. This information had the town and the surrounding areas on edge. For one thing, residents were apprehensive if they had any upcoming cable appointments. They didn't want anyone from that company in their homes. And not only that, men who worked direct TV felt nervous because now they were being questioned about something that they maybe had no involvement in and people who had loved ones like their husbands for example or family members who work

for the company were now kind of looking at them like could they be involved and you're right if you think that police had been questioning men who worked for the company they had actually been told to stop any direct tv vans there were driving in the areas and question the drivers one local wife and mother of three Stephanie Dunlap was keeping up to date on the horrendous crime as it unfolded. Not only because she too was a mom, but also because her husband Kevin worked for direct TV. She remembered the day that she heard about the fire. When Kevin came home from work on October 15th, he told her that he had just been pulled over in question by police. She asked him, why? And he said it had something to do with the house fire. Kevin told her that the police

were looking for someone that worked for direct TV because apparently according to what he was told, someone saw a direct TV van around the scene of the fire. But really, it was a direct TV shirt that Christy had seen the killer wearing. But nonetheless, this is what was being relayed to people as they were being stopped by police. And Kevin, of course, drove a company van during the weekdays. And he said that a bunch of his coworkers have been pulled over that day. Stephanie thought, wow, this is really serious. At that point, not much was being said in the media. And Kevin said that the cops just asked him some questions and then sent him on his way. A couple days later is when Stephanie saw the newspaper article for the first time.

The headline read, Three Children Dead After House Fire. Stephanie couldn't help feeling so bad for that poor family. She thought how awful that they weren't able to get out of that burning house. Stephanie, just like Christy, had three children. Her oldest daughter, Brooke, was 13. Kevin Jr. was 11. And little Aiden was only three at the time.

so we'd hit close to home for her. It was so heartbreaking for those little ones to lose their life so young. It was hard for Stephanie not to be invested in the case. It's also a small town. So, of course, it's what everyone was talking about. Plus, Kevin, he was directly related because he worked for this company

that was supposedly connected somehow. Or maybe it wasn't. Since it wasn't really a van, it was only a shirt. The police didn't know if the fact the guy was wearing the DirecTV shirt had any relevance. He could be a former employee, or he could even got in the shirt at a garage sale or a thrift store. Who knows? No one knew for sure. But they were close to finding out, because although the authorities were staying tight-lipped, they were running with an even bigger lead. The license

plane number that they had been given from Matt Ledford. From just those first three letters, they were able to narrow their search to a specific county where the vehicle was registered. Once they tracked it down and got the information related to the vehicle, it matched the description Matt gave, a Chevy Silverado. At that point, they had the name and address of the owner. And when they did a background check, they found out that the man worked for a company called Brewster and Associates, which turned out to be an independent cable installation contractor that had employees who installed and serviced satellite systems for none other than DirecTV in Kentucky. But they were on to something here. Things were adding up. The dots were connecting. Their prime

suspect was born in Texas, but it lived in Hopkinsville, Kentucky for most of his life, and served in the U.S. Army for more than 13 years from 1989 to 2002. After being released from the Army, he joined and served in the Kentucky National Guard in Hopkinsville for two years. He had been honorably discharged from the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and they're known as the Nightstalkers. He was a helicopter mechanic, and now he was working full-time installing satellite for direct TV. The house at the address related to this vehicle registration was a modest one-story brick home with a horseshoe driveway

that sat on the corner of Coxmill Road and Sterling Drive in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. It was a 25-minute drive to Christy's house from this location, so investigators wondered what the connection may be. They located the suspect at his place of employment and began to follow him starting on that Friday evening. They planned to raid his home the next day on Saturday, October 18th, Just three days after the murder. They were just waiting on a search warrant and arrest warrant.

A direct TV utility van could be seen parked in the driveway out front of the house that night, and a Chevy Silverado was parked on the other side of the home. By Sunday morning, there were now two direct TV vans outside in the horseshoe driveway, and the SWAT team and several police officers were standing by in unmarked vehicles. They were waiting for a woman and children to leave the premises.

As soon as they got the go-ahead with the warrants, they converged on the home. A small explosion was used as a diversionary tactic. And the police set this off before they made their way inside the home to make an arrest. That same day, Stephanie Dunlap had just dropped her two older children, Brooke and Kevin Jr., over at their neighbor's house, to go run some errands with her three-year-old Aden. When a neighbor called her to let her know that something was going on in their usually quiet neighborhood, you know how word travels fast.

She said they just heard a loud bang and they brought their children inside the house from playing outside. Stephanie rushed back over to the neighbors to make sure the kids were okay. And that's when she saw it. There was a police car parked outside her house. She went over and she asked, what is going on? And they informed her that her husband, Kevin Wayne Dunlap, had just been arrested. Stephanie had no idea what was going on. Two investigators showed up right after this and they asked her if she knew why they were there.

And she told them, no. I have no idea. She was told. that her husband had been arrested in connection to the house fire in Roaring Springs that occurred on October 15th. She did not understand. Her mind was racing. She said she was just sitting there trying to understand how her husband could be in any way connected to a housefire. And that is when the detectives began to calmly explain to Stephanie that it wasn't just a housefire. The three children that had died had been murdered.

Their mother tied up and sexually violated and then almost killed. The house was set on fire, but the mother managed to escape by rolling outside into her swimming pool. She was an eyewitness, and the evidence that she and other residents provided to authorities led them to suspect that Stephanie's husband, Kevin, was responsible for this crime. And as you can probably imagine, Stephanie was in total shock. She never for one second even considered that her own husband would be involved in anything like this. Everything was in slow motion. Stephanie could hardly breathe. One of the things she thought of was that if he did this,

then he came home that night, he ate dinner with her as a family, and then he slept right next to her in bed. It was unfathomable. Could he have really done such a thing? She didn't think he was capable of such evil. How? She had been married to him for 13 years. By 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon,

36-year-old Kevin Wayne Dunlap had been formally charged with three counts of capital murder, three counts of kidnapping, three counts of tampering with evidence, one count of attempted murder, first-degree sexual battery, and first-degree burglary and arson. These charges would be enhanced because a firearm had been used during the commission of the crime. State police detective Jerry Jones booked Dunlap into the Christian County Jail in Hopkinsville at 4.34 p.m. that afternoon. Meanwhile, the investigators are scouring the Dunlap home and Kevin's vehicles, including his direct TV work van. and they were looking for evidence.

The Silverado was towed to a crime lab for analysis, and the other DirecTV van that was parked outside the home belonged to Kevin's coworker, who was actually inside when the house was raided. Both of the men were escorted outside in handcuffs, and they were surrounded by officers, and they were questioned. Once Kevin was identified, the other man was let go,

and he was not involved in the crime. Stephanie didn't know what to think. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel as California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th,

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With new honey, chili crisp and jalapena ranch, get dipping with a boneless bucket today. Prices in participation vary. She did not think her husband was guilty. When she went to the jail to visit him, she asked him, why did they think you committed this crime? She thought that he was going to explain it to her. But he just said, it was nothing.

She's like, what do you mean? It's nothing. They're saying you killed three children. He didn't give his wife an explanation or anything, so she didn't know what to believe. Kevin was a father, a husband. Why would he do this? Well, that's what police want to know.

And of course, they want to interview those closest to Kevin. Here is the information Stephanie provided about her and Kevin's life together. Stephanie was born and raised in Hopkinsville. She was actually introduced to Kevin through some of her neighbors when she was still in high school. He was five years older than her. His demeanor had always been very gentle and kind.

She and Kevin were just friends up until later on when Stephanie turned 18. He was 23, and they began dating. At the time, she had a three-month-old child from a previous relationship, her oldest daughter, Brooke. Stephanie loved how Kevin treated Brooke as though she was his own child. Stephanie and Kevin got married nine months after they started dating on December 29, 1995. The three of them became a family.

They did everything together. Kevin was a hard worker in the military. They were very happy and Stephanie was in love. Over time, they discussed wanting a bigger family. And after about a year and a half together in 1997, Stephanie gave birth to a baby boy they named Kevin Jr. after his father. Then little Aden followed about three years later. Stephanie said the marriage was normal until it wasn't.

Things started to change. Kevin became angry towards the children seemingly for no reason at all. Now for the first time since I've started talking about true crime cases publicly, I was actually triggered. And I try to be as sensitive as possible, but I also don't want to hide the truth about what people have done. This next part triggered me. And in no way am I going to go into a whole story about me,

but I also think it's important to know little things because you may feel the same way and not feel alone if you know, if you know others have been there. I grew up with an abusive stepfather. When I was about two and a half years old, my biological father went to prison, and my mom met a new guy. And he had major anger issues.

And this story brought me back to how fearful I became as a child. I was shocked at how similar Kevin was to my stepfather. It's the closest story has ever come. I was in tears when I heard everything that you were about to hear. The first change that Stephanie saw was the way Kevin was treating Stephanie's daughter Brooke. the one that she and Kevin did not have together, but that he raised since she was born.

To Stephanie's surprise, Kevin began to be hypercritical of the littlest things Brooke was doing. One example was at dinner one night. Kevin was glaring at Brooke while she was eating. Mind you, this is a little girl, she's a child. But Kevin started aggressively telling Brooke, she was holding her spoon wrong. It wasn't the way that Kevin thought it should be held.

This poor little girl sat there trying her best to get it right, But no matter how hard her little fingers tried to readjust his demands, she couldn't do it the way he wanted and it got to a point where Kevin got physical. This was a turning point. Sure. Kevin had been strict and critical in the past, but now he had taken it to the next level. Even worse, if Brooke shed one tear, Kevin would yell, I'll give you something to cry about. I heard the same threat as a child and I learned to cry without tears.

Therapy helped. I wasn't allowed to cry. and I felt Brooke's pain so much. I'm allowed to cry now, and these cases help me by sharing other people's pain and crying for them. Another thing, food itself. Brooke was required to eat every creme of food, whether she liked it or not,

and she couldn't move away from the table until she was done. Sometimes she would have to sit there for hours. So you may wonder, where was Stephanie through all this? I wondered where my mom was sometimes, scared, in a state of fear that. where. To confront a man like that, it's a risk. As my mother put it, she was scared if she fought back and something were to happen to her. There wouldn't be anyone to protect me. Stephanie

said she felt the same way. I felt abandoned as a child, and Brooks sitting alone at that table did as well. Stephanie had to wait until Kevin went to bed or was taking a shower, and then she would come to Brooke's rescue, throwing away all the old food and then making sure to cover it up in the garbage so Kevin wouldn't see it. Then she would tell Brooke to go show Kevin that she was done. If she didn't finish, she would get spanked. And many times that's exactly what happened if Stephanie didn't help her. Stephanie had to smooth things over. What's hard about all this is that there were happy times in between these moments of fear and pain.

It was a vicious cycle of push and pull. Stephanie and Brooke both said they looked happy, especially from the outside. Family photos did not show what went on behind closed doors. Kevin became very focused on causing his family. pain. His next victim was Stephanie. Sadly, he involved the children in his torture. Not all of us are going to understand this, but Stephanie had a phobia of people touching her feet. Listen, we own our bodies. If something makes us feel uncomfortable, others should respect that in our boundaries, but someone like Kevin, use that fear against Stephanie. He pretended it was all in good

fun. A game for the kids to play, let's tickle mommy's feet. So all four of them would gang up on Stephanie as she screamed and told them to please stop. But the kids would follow Kevin's lead until he'd had enough, until he got bored with it, leaving Stephanie feeling helpless and defeated. The kids would listen to Kevin because they were scared of him. He seemed to find pleasure in other people's pain, and things got worse, not better as years went on. Kevin became a loose cannon. His family never knew when he was about to blow up. One afternoon, Kevin came home from work, and his As soon as he got through the door, he demanded to know where Stephanie was. He asked Brooke, where's your mother?

Stephanie had been napping. Kevin, for no reason, barge into the bedroom and grabbed Stephanie's hair, pulling her off the bed. Being awakened this way was shocking to say the least. She had no idea why Kevin was so agitated. That word. Remember the word agitated. Kevin was just throwing Stephanie around the room, hitting her head onto the wall, just throwing her like a rag doll.

All the while she's crying, she's telling him to stop. The kids are witnessing this whole ordeal, but he wouldn't stop. He grabbed her first, her all the way down the hallway as she's still kicking and screaming, and the kids are scared. And Kevin started screaming for Stephanie to leave, to get out of his house. And he was throwing her outside. But since she knew that Kevin cared about what other people thought, Stephanie figured if people were around, she would be safer.

So she was glad she was outside. She didn't know what she did to deserve them. She just kept apologizing over and over to him. This was the first time the kids had witnessed Kevin treating their mother this way. And then, as quickly as it started, he would just stop leaving Stephanie bruise and beaten. But he was the man she loved.

Let's try hard not to judge Stephanie too quickly for not leaving. I know some of us may wonder, why is she sticking around? Leave him. It wasn't that simple. Even as a child, Brooke said she wondered why Stephanie would let Kevin treat her this way. She knew it wasn't right. And of course, Brooke had experienced it for herself.

Brooke wondered why Stephanie seemed to allow this to happen. And Stephanie explained, it was because of her fears. Soon, Kevin began getting physical with Stephanie more and more, but he would always strategically bruise her in places that she would cover with clothing. Stephanie considered reporting Kevin to the police, but she was so scared of what would happen to her or the children if he retaliated.

It's a very dangerous situation to be in. And at the same time, Stephanie had another job. She was working hard to make sure her family looked as perfect as possible from the outside, all the family photos, the activities they would do together. It all became a facade. Kevin would also be a perfect angel when his mother was around. He acted like a really great husband and father, but it wasn't true. The family was always walking on eggshells around him.

And they were pretty good at knowing what would set him off. So the quieter they were, the less trouble they would get. get into. Stephanie just kept her head down, stayed in college, and knew if she had a way to support herself, then she could finally leave Kevin for good one day and be able to take care of the kids on her own. Things got to a whole new level of fear when Kevin started bringing guns into the home. Stephanie was terrified. You have this person who blows up out of nowhere, and now he's got more than just his fists as weapons. But Kevin insisted the firearms were just there to protect the family. But he turned one of those guns on his children one afternoon.

Not a gun full of bullets. This one was a pellet gun. The kids actually never told Stephanie at the time. She found out much later. Broke and Kevin Jr. were in the living room one afternoon when Kevin broke out his pellet gun and began shooting at them. It hurt. These pellets are made of metal. They burn your skin and Kevin acted like it was funny watching his children squirm.

The kids started screaming and telling him to stop. And he just yelled back, shut up. up and he kept laughing all the while as his kids screamed in pain. And then you just turn around to walk out. Wow. This next part really terrified and disgusted me. It was Halloween one year. And just like the years before, Stephanie went out and bought Halloween candy, buying Kevin his favorite kind. And while I was at work one day, Stephanie helped herself to a few pieces of Kevin's candy. And when he got home, he noticed there was not as many pieces as before. And he was furious yelling, Who ate my candy?

Stephanie was so scared that he would think it was the kids when it was really her, so she quickly told him, it was me, it was me, I'm sorry. Mind you, this woman went out and purchased the candy for him, so it's so twisted how in his mind he has such entitlement and such claim over something as trivial as Halloween candy, but Kevin was in a rage. He had to teach Stephanie a lesson.

No one eats his candy. Stephanie kept apologizing and telling him, it's okay, I'll buy you more. But Kevin actually took out. a real gun this time. And he pointed it at Stephanie. She was shocked. She asked him, what are you doing? And he said, how dare you eat my candy? Then he told her how easy it would be for him to end her life. He wanted her never to touch his things again. His things. Wow. I'm physically affected by that behavior. It may be my personal trauma,

but it makes me cringe and shiver. Stephanie was begging for her life at this point. Over some candy? Can you even imagine? It's frightening to think that a person holding a gun actually has a twisted mindset where they believe this behavior is warranted. And that's the scariest part because you don't know how far they will take it. Stephanie just told him she'll never do it again. She repeated her apology over and over until he finally released her. Not only did he walk away, but he didn't talk to Stephanie for two whole months. She tried to make normal conversation with her husband asking him about his day, silence. In domestic situations like this, it's common for the person in control to punish the victim. The silent treatment is one very typical way that they do it. The message they're sending is,

you're not even worth their breath. Stephanie was still sleeping in the same bed, yet this man ignored her. Just acted like he had pulled that trigger that day and that she was dead. Dead silence. But it was also the things Kevin did choose to say. They made it hard for Stephanie. to leave, and I know this all too well. Things about how stupid she was. She wasn't good at anything. She was worthless. She would never be able to survive on her own.

There are many ways people try to gain control over others, and one is with their words. And sometimes it's with actual control over something like finances, for example. After years of being told she was worthless, Stephanie started to believe it. She really felt trapped. She felt like she had to stay with Kevin and there was no way out. She kept thinking maybe Kevin would see the light one day, maybe he would change for the better, but that wasn't the case. It usually isn't.

But it did seem to get better. Kevin stopped being physical with them, but he was hardly around. He began distancing himself from everyone, spending a lot more time by himself, locked up in his man cave, as Stephanie put it. No one knew what he was doing in there. It was a room above their garage in the house. Kevin seemed to sleep less and less and spend more time locked in this room. He wouldn't even eat with his family anymore, which honestly was good for them. No more worrying about holding utensils incorrectly or being forced to eat when you're already full.

They were kind of happy he wasn't around as much. Kevin would go straight to his private room as soon as he came home from work. Stephanie was relieved. She didn't have to deal with him as much anymore. The household was so much calmer. The kids were also getting older. and they would be gone doing their own activities. So Stephanie enjoyed her time alone.

She wouldn't even question or care about what Kevin was doing as long as he wasn't bothering her. She felt good about him keeping to himself. And there were times that Kevin wouldn't even come to bed. Some nights he would be up doing whatever he was doing, unbeknownst to anyone else in the house. Stephanie wouldn't be able to tell if he had left the home either because he would go right out the garage.

Unbelievably, in August of 2004, Kevin and Stephanie actually separated. Perhaps that time alone helped Kevin feel as though it was okay if she left. Stephanie filed for divorce on September 20th, 2004. At this time, Kevin was not employed. He was attending Hopkinsville Community College, and he was receiving $950 a month through the GI Bill for college and another 813 a month in VA disability benefits. While the court proceedings took place, Kevin and,

and Stephanie agreed to the terms for custody agreement and other details like what Kevin would be paying for child support. But less than a year later, by July 12, 2005, the divorce was dismissed because Kevin and Stephanie decided to stay together. Don't ask me why, because there were no details. Maybe the time apart brought back fond memories of better times. I don't know. But what I do know is that there were signs that things were not better. Stephanie explained that one night there was a violent storm outside. It woke her.

She noticed that Kevin was not in bed beside her. She wondered where he was, and this time she went looking for him. Where she found him frightened, confused, and disgusted her. She found him in her daughter, Brooke's bedroom, in her bed. Of course, Stephanie immediately woke him up. She told him, get up. She asked Brooke, who was now awake and confused, why her dad was in bed with her.

He hadn't been there when she fell asleep. And it scared her. She was also wondering why her mom was so angry. I think we know why. This was highly inappropriate. Stephanie knew it was something more than Kevin accidentally getting into the wrong bed, and that was concerning.

Had he done something to Brooke? No one knew. Brooke said he very well could have, and she could have blocked it out. All she knows is she was never afraid of thunder before that night. But now she was. But Kevin had been drinking earlier in that evening,

so Stephanie was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he did just kind of wander in there and pass out. All Brooke knew was now when she heard thunder, she curled up into a ball and cried, something she hadn't done before this. But now it was a triggered response. Wow. That's terrifying to think that he may have done something.