The first two calls from the Commonwealth during Thursday afternoon’s session of the Landon Stinson trial in Trigg County Circuit Court: Kathy Faris and Bobbie Jo Overby Blakeley.
The former is the niece of Sue Faris and aunt of Matthew Blakeley — two Trigg County residents found murdered on July 2, 2021, at 216 Cerulean Road.
Kathy made it clear to both Commonwealth’s Attorney Carrie-Ovey Wiggins and Defense Attorney Bill Deatherage that she was the first to enter Sue’s residence on July 3, 2021 — at the behest of Bobbie Jo and Matthew’s sister, Mary Hargrove. Both had taken time to contact Matthew the previous night, but to no avail, and Kathy had a key.
Both Sue and Matthew’s cars were in the drive way the morning of July 3. Kathy said Bobbie Jo’s car was a compact white Toyota Corolla.
Kathy also said the back door was locked, and upon entering, she found her two family members deceased — and screamed for “everyone to get out of the house.”
Through Deatherage, Kathy said Sue was “generous” and always “taking in the family.” And it was on July 2, Kathy said, that Sue discussed doing some grocery shopping with Landon’s sister, Katelynn Schiro, in order to help stock his new Julien Road apartment.
Once Sue’s property was released from investigation, Kathy also told Deatherage she and other family members had been allowed by authorities to clean and discard of materials — which she confirmed included drug paraphernalia “throughout” the Cerulean Road home.
It also included Matthew’s truck, a silver Toyota Tacoma, which was combed through by Kathy and her spouse in summer 2022. At the time, she said she couldn’t bear the thought of rifling through his belongings. But it’s also here, she said, when she located a sealed bag of marijuana in backseat pocket — likely belonging to Matthew.
She kept it for another year in a personal dresser drawer, before submitting it and a letter to Kentucky State Police and the Commonwealth less than six months prior to the trial.
Deatherage then revealed a text exchange that occurred between Kathy and Kentucky State Police lead investigator Detective David Dick, one that took place in October 2021.
Ovey-Wiggins had a pointed redirect.
Bobbie Jo, meanwhile, is Matthew’s widow. She noted the two had been together for seven years and married for just three months before having to bury her betrothed.
The last time she talked to her late husband was early July 2, and it had been through text messaging. Around 4:30 PM, the text messages weren’t being returned, and when she got off work around 7 PM, she still wasn’t getting any responses.
Sometime between 9:30-11 PM that evening, she drove by and saw Sue and Matthew’s vehicles in the driveway, but didn’t go in or knock on the door because she thought Sue would’ve already been asleep. She testified that she checked Matthew’s truck for a charger cord, thinking Matthew’s phone had died, and returned home close by.
Bobbie Jo also noted to Ovey-Wiggins that Matthew and Landon were “best friends,” and at times, they would hang out long hours.
Closing up Thursday’s testimony included former Cadiz Police Department officer Justin Rios, California Highway Patrol officer Robert Wittenberg and U.S. Secret Service digital forensics agent and KSP assignee Aaron Gabhart.
Rios, who now works for the Christian County Sheriff’s Office, was the first to establish a crime scene at Cerulean Road. Wittenberg was responsible for picking up Stinson on a California freeway near Fullerton, and he confirmed that Stinson was detained first for hitch-hiking, a citing offense, and that his name pinged for a drug warrant with a “potentially-armed” warning who was wanted for questioning in a double homicide.
Gabhart testified about the difficulty of breaking into a cell phone. A device related to the case was submitted to his office, and it eventually had to be shipped to Cleveland in order to solve a pattern code. The U.S. Secret Service is involved, he said, because the technology used to crack certain passwords doesn’t exist in smaller police departments, and their services are contracted through KSP.
Efforts in this case will resume at 9 AM Friday.
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