45: Buried After Bar Hopping: She Left With Three Men And Never Came Home | The Savannah Spurlock Case

The FaceTime conversation, there was a lot of hollering in the background and people were telling her mother to chill out. Something catches her mother's eyes. Savannah appears to be in a car with two strange men. The dozens of police and volunteers were out scouring fields and woods for any sign of Savannah's spur-lock. We're looking for a body. Yep. No f*ckin' rhythm in with a body. So you all have read these hate cells in my thunder? When Ellen's spur-lock woke up at 3 a.m., she expected to see her daughter and her car back in the driveway. But instead, 22-year-olds Savannah's spur-lock was nowhere to be found. Now, when Ellen called her daughter Savannah, she answered, but she sounded irritated and refused to say where she was. Then she hung up the phone. Only that wasn't the last time that Ellen heard from Savannah. Because a short time later, Savannah called her back via FaceTime. This time it was a video call and it was from inside a car that Ellen didn't recognize. And Savannah was surrounded by strangers. And who Savannah was with that night? And where they were headed? Well, that would eventually unravel into a horrifying mystery. Hey guys, I'm Annie Elise. This is Ten To Life. Let's jump right in. (Music) When people think of Lexington, Kentucky, usually two things come to mind. The University of Kentucky and the Kentucky Derby. And while those two things are pretty huge, that's not all that there is to Lexington. Lexington is actually where a lot of people from smaller towns across Kentucky will drive and go to to have fun. There are concerts, events, bars, nightlife, whether you're a college student or just somebody looking for a night out. Lexington is kind of the place to be. And that's exactly where 22-year-olds Savannah Spurlock headed out on the night of January 4th, 2019. Savannah lived nearby in Richmond, Kentucky, about 40 minutes away from where she was going out. And while she may have been 22 years old, she already had a lot on her plate. See, just five weeks earlier, she had given birth to twins, which also were her third and fourth children. She also had a two-year-old and a four-year-old at home, which just thinking about having four kids under the age of four, that is enough to stress me out and send me into a Bolivian. I know I could never do it, no less at 22 years old. And at that point in her life, Savannah was really feeling the weight of all of this, all of the pressure and the obligations and responsibilities. She also had recently gone through a breakup, and she was in the postpartum period right after childbirth, which, as many of you viewers and listeners know, that brings a whole other layer of emotions and challenges. Not to mention, she and her most recent boyfriend, the father of her two-year-old and the father of her twins, they had split up. So after the breakup, she moved back in with her mom while she tried to get back on her feet. So like I said, there was just a lot going on. So now, fast forward, and for one night, she wanted to just relax. Let loose. Be a typical 22-year-old girl and have fun. Her mom, Ellen, agreed to watch her kids while Savannah was gonna go out. So Savannah got ready. She fixed her hair, did her makeup, put on a black sleeveless top, a maroon skirt, some black heels, and got ready for the evening. Savannah then met up with two friends, one being her friend, Jocelyn, and then another, a male friend named Dion. She borrowed her mom, Ellen's car, and she left the house at around 10 pm. Now the group first went to a friend's house in Lexington, where they were pre-gaming before hitting the bars, you know. Getting a little buzz first, drinking a little cheaper than you will at the bar, and just like, you know, catching a buzz. So everything seemed fine. She was going out, she was gonna return home. But when Ellen woke up later that night, she was shocked to realize that Savannah still was not home, and the car was not in the driveway. And this was at 3 am. Now from what I can tell, there may have been some miscommunication, because it seemed like Ellen believed that Savannah was just borrowing the car, grabbing food with friends, and then coming back home. But even with that, even if she didn't think she was gonna be partying all night, in Ellen's mind, Savannah absolutely should have been back by 3 am. And yes, Savannah was 22 years old, she was an adult, so it's not like she needed to report her every move that she made to her mom, or follow some kind of curfew. It also wasn't unusual for Savannah to go out with friends in Lexington. But you have to remember, her mom Ellen was also sitting at home caring for these twin newborns, so of course she wanted communication. She wanted to know what was going on. This not only wasn't what she expected, but she also was a bit concerned. So she knew that she needed to call her daughter, eventually, after several rings, Savannah picked up the phone. But she sounded really annoyed, almost like that she was being bothered. And when Ellen asked where she was and what she was doing, Savannah became even more irritated, acting like she didn't owe anyone an explanation. Then she hung up the phone entirely. So just like that, Ellen was left completely in the dark. Now to Ellen, it didn't matter that Savannah was technically an adult, because as a parent you never stop worrying about your kids. Sometimes just knowing where they are, that's enough to give you peace of mind. Not to mention, like I had said, Savannah had four kids under four years old, including twin infants. She didn't have a partner, she lived with her mom, she had just given birth to the twins five weeks earlier, but now she wanted to go bar hopping. Which I know a lot of people might have thoughts on that, which that's totally understandable because to a lot of people it seems like it's the wrong time to go out and let loose while a lot of other people think no, she was in the throes of postpartum. She just wanted to feel like a normal person again, she needed a break from all of that. So I think that there's a lot of different opinions, which is totally fair. The point being, luckily before Ellen could sit with the worry or fear for too long, she saw that Savannah was calling her back. Now when she answered, she immediately felt a sense of relief because it was a face time call this time and Savannah looked like she was okay. However, she was sitting inside a car and that car was not the one she borrowed. It wasn't her mom's car. On this call, Savannah was also still pretty stingy with information. She reassured her mother though that she was fine, she told her that she would be home by the morning so that Ellen could get her car back, but that was it. And honestly, this wasn't all that reassuring because it kind of missed the point. Savannah had left her young children with her mother overnight without explaining the plan. The whole situation fell off. Now, I will say this, to be fair, it was good that Savannah wasn't driving if she had been drinking. And like I said, the car that she was in, it definitely wasn't Ellen's. But it also wasn't an Uber. The vibe just felt completely different too because Ellen could see that Savannah wasn't with her usual group of friends. In the background of the face time call, she saw two men that she had never seen before. The men were yelling, music was blasting, one of them was even shouting at Ellen to calm down. And she had no idea who these guys were or what they had been doing. If they had been drinking too, it certainly seemed as if they had been drinking. And it was just a nightmare. And I can only imagine how chaotic that phone call must have felt. You know, when people have been drinking for hours, everybody's talking over each other, yelling, laughing, it's loud. You can't make sense of what's going on. It's a nightmare and it's a mess, no less, at three in the morning. So while seeing Savannah's face and knowing that she was alive and physically okay, did, yes, make Ellen feel somewhat better, she still couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right. And I think that's because Savannah was a little complicated. She was a lot of things. She loved her children, she wanted what was best for them, she was a good friend, she was someone that people could count on. But there was also another side to her story. A troubled past, some difficult circumstances, and some recent decisions that had worried the people closest to her. I know I mentioned that Savannah had become a young mother, but she had her first two children at just ages 18 and 20. So she was trying to balance motherhood, everyday life, and her education all at the same time. She had been attending Eastern Kentucky University up until 2018, when she found out that she was pregnant with the twins. And at that point, it all became too much. The thought of raising four young children while continuing school, it felt completely overwhelming. And I'm not saying any of that to judge Savannah, but understanding what was happening in her life, it just helps paint a fuller picture. Because part of the reason that her mom Ellen was so concerned that night, and part of the reason Savannah may have been less than honest about what she was doing, is that Savannah hadn't exactly been making the best decisions recently. Just two weeks earlier, she had been arrested and charged with a DUI. In fact, her first court appearance related to the DUI was scheduled for January 7, which was only a few days away from this night in question. And then there was something else too, something that happened after Savannah gave birth to the twins. Not much public information available about it, only that there was some sort of incident at the hospital that ultimately resulted in Savannah's ex receiving temporary custody of the twins. The records were apparently sealed, and very little has ever been released publicly. And all that one of Savannah's friends was willing to say was that, Savannah had struggled with the shock of giving birth to twins, which I know was a little bit confusing because part of the research said that she was overwhelmed at the thought of twins, and that's why she dropped out of school. But now, according to this friend, it was unexpected. In fact, according to the friend, she says, "She didn't know that she was having twins until they arrived. I wasn't there, but our other friend Sabrina was." And she said that Savannah just looked terrified when she was told that there were two of them. Now I know that that doesn't really answer many questions, but all of that to say that even though Savannah was technically an adult, Ellen was still doing what moms do. She was watching out for her daughter and trying to help her navigate a really difficult chapter in her life. And despite the uneasy feeling that she had after that Facetime call and feeling like something wasn't right, Ellen still tried to give Savannah some room to breathe. If Savannah said that she would be home by the morning, then she would be home by the morning. And even though Savannah had been making some questionable decisions recently, she was still somebody who did what she said she was going to do, especially when it came to her children. She knew her mom, Ellen, had to work the next day. She knew that someone needed to be there with her kids and she knew that she had borrowed the only car that Ellen had. So when Ellen woke up a few hours later and realized that Savannah still wasn't home and neither was the car, she probably rightfully so should have been angry, but instead she felt something else. She felt that same fear that she had felt the night before. It just came rushing back because this was completely unlike Savannah. So at around 8.30 a.m. that morning, Ellen tried calling her again. At that point, she was honestly hoping that Savannah was just being irresponsible because at least that would mean that she was safe, even if she was just being reckless and over slept or had party too late. Maybe she crashed at a friend's house. Maybe again, you know, she forgot to set an alarm. Anything would have been better than the alternatives that were running through Ellen's mind. But as soon as she called, the phone went straight to voicemail, which again was unusual. Even the night before, when Savannah had been out drinking and clearly didn't want to answer any questions or answer the phone, she still picked up the phone. And I would imagine that knowing that her children were with her mom, she would typically answer just in case something was wrong. So the fact that now her phone suddenly seemed to be off, whether that was intentionally or because the battery had died, it felt like a major red flag. So the next thing that Ellen did was what a lot of us would probably do in this situation. She checked social media, not only to see whether Savannah had posted anything, but also to see if she had been active. Because if you go to somebody's profile and go as if you're going to message them, it does show either it's as like active now or last active two hours ago, and it shows when they were last signed on. But the first thing that Ellen noticed was that Savannah wasn't active. The second thing she noticed was that she hadn't been active for hours. And as the day went on, nothing changed. Savannah's phone never came back on. Her social media accounts stayed in active. And at that point, Ellen was panicking. She didn't know what to think. All she knew was that something felt very wrong. And even though this behavior was completely out of character for Savannah, part of Ellen still hoped that there was some sort of innocent, irresponsible explanation. Maybe Savannah was asleep at a friend's house. Maybe there had been a misunderstanding. Maybe she would show up in a few hours and explain everything. But that never happened. So by around 7pm that evening, Ellen decided she couldn't wait any longer. She went to the police and she filed a missing persons report. Unfortunately, Ellen wasn't able to give investigators as much information as she wished that she could. Because remember, Savannah had been pretty vague with her about everything she was doing that evening. And given the recent DUI, maybe Savannah knew that her mom would be upset if she found out that she spent the night just out all night binge drinking. But whatever the reason, Ellen didn't have many answers. Here's what she did know though. The last time that she had seen Savannah was around 3am during that Facetime call. And looking back, Ellen felt that it was pretty obvious that Savannah had been drinking and was pretty intoxicated. But other than that, she had seemed to be in a relatively okay mood. She wasn't crying. She wasn't angry. She wasn't acting scared. So Ellen told the investigators what she recalled. Saying that Savannah had been sitting in the front passenger seat. A man was driving and it appeared that there may have been one or two other men in the vehicle at the time. So potentially, she said that maybe there were three men in total. Now because it was dark, the vehicle was moving and everything happened so quickly. Ellen wasn't able to make out any faces. Meaning in theory, the men could have been people that Savannah knew or people that she had just met that night. All Ellen really knew was that they sounded like men, grown men, and that was it. Investigators quickly learned that Savannah had been out with her friends Jocelyn and Dion the night before. So they decided to interview them, try to establish a timeline and hopefully learn more about who Savannah had been with that evening. So after pre-gaming at a friend's house in Lexington, Savannah and her friends eventually ended up at a place called the other bar. It was near the University of Kentucky campus. It was on a stretch of road that was packed with bars where people often just went bar hopping and did pub crawls and all that comes with it. And this was around midnight. According to Jocelyn and Dion, at some point during the night, three men approached their group and they started talking with them. These men were not people that they knew. But according to Savannah's friends, nothing about this interaction seemed dangerous or strange. Nobody felt uncomfortable. Nobody thought that anything was off. It just seemed like normal conversation between people who were meeting at a bar. And for a while, everyone was having a good time. But as the night went on, things became a little more chaotic. Dion was the first to leave. And that was around 2 a.m. He said that he had to be somewhere early the next morning. So that's why he was ducking out. He was tired. He was over it. He wanted to get some sleep. So that left Savannah and Jocelyn hanging out with these three men and continuing to drink. But eventually, Jocelyn hit that point in the night as well where she was ready to go home. The drinks were wearing off. She was tired. She had just had enough. Savannah, however, did not want to leave. She was having fun. She wanted to stay. She wanted to party. She wanted to shut the bar down. So the two of them ended up getting into a little bit of an argument. And maybe it was the alcohol. Maybe it was the late hours. Maybe it was a little bit of both. Who knows. But whatever the reason, Jocelyn became very frustrated. Frustrated enough that she decided that she was leaving with or without Savannah. So she left. And that was the last time that either of Savannah's friends ever saw her. Now, when you put together what Jocelyn and Dion told the investigators and you put that along with what Ellen saw during the FaceTime call, it's reasonable to assume that these three men at the bar were the same men that Savannah was later riding around in the car with, right? Those interviews definitely helped. The problem was the interview still didn't answer the biggest question. Where was Savannah? Who were these men? Where were they headed to when she called her mom? But then investigators got another major break. They located Ellen's car. And it appeared that Savannah had never returned to it after leaving for the bars that night. Now the reason that the investigators believed that it came from information provided by Savannah's friends. You see, Savannah had brought two purses with her about evening. There was her larger everyday purse. And then there was a smaller black over the shoulder cocktail kind of purse, which for all my women listening and watching, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You have your big purse, you have your smaller purse that's meant for just the essentials like your ID, money, lip gloss, things like that. And according to her friends, Savannah left the larger purse in the car and only then brought the smaller little purse into the bar. Well, when investigators found Ellen's vehicle, the larger purse was still inside. The smaller black purse, however, was gone. So that suggested that Savannah had never returned to the car after going into the other bar. So investigators turned their attention to the last confirmed location where she had been seen. The bar itself. Maybe employees had seen something, maybe somebody remembered one of the men's names, maybe someone recognized them. And I couldn't find this in my research, but I also did wonder whether Jocelyn or Dion remembered any of the men's names or were able to give the police a description. I'm just thinking back tonight's out with friends like that when everybody's been drinking and it's late and everybody's hanging. I mean, the truth is even if somebody introduced themselves earlier in the night, there is a good chance you wouldn't remember their name by the time the bar shuts down. But who knows, I mean, you never know, right? However, investigators ended up getting something even better because the bar had surveillance cameras and those cameras captured the very moment that Savannah left that night and who she left with. Now this footage has been released publicly. So if you're watching on YouTube, you may have already seen some of the image still images from it. But in this video, two men can be seen walking alongside Savannah. She appears to be closer to one of them, almost linking arms with him, and I really tried to look at the footage objectively and consider all the possibilities, but Savannah was wearing pretty significant heels that night, and the moment that she's holding onto this man's arm happens while they're crossing like a grassy area. So maybe she simply needed a little help walking, maybe she was unbalanced in her shoes, who really knows. I've also seen some people speculate that Savannah looks upset or uncomfortable in the footage. Now personally, I think it's open to interpretation, which you can watch yourself and for all my podcast listeners, you can jump over to the video version after this to take a look. But everybody is probably going to see something different. To me, she doesn't look angry. I think it just kind of looks like a neutral expression. Now as for whether she seemed uncomfortable, again, that's hard to say. She appears to be holding herself a little bit in some of the clips, but to me, I think that that means she could just be cold. I don't know, maybe you'll feel differently, and I'd definitely be interested to hear your thoughts in the comment section as you're watching. The second man can be seen walking several steps ahead of Savannah and the man that she was closest to. Now I know what you might be thinking. Wait, Annie, I thought that there were three men. Well, there were. Savannah and the two men seen on this camera footage got into a car while the third man followed behind them in a truck. So even though the three men appeared to know one another and were apparently friends, they had arrived in separate vehicles. Now here's the frustrating part, okay? Was there surveillance footage? Yes. Was it helpful? Only to a point. It honestly amazes me how many cases we cover where surveillance footage exists, yet the quality is still so unbelievably blurry. I mean, technology is incredible these days, but somehow security cameras still managed to look like they were filmed with a freaking potato. I don't understand it, I never will, and it infuriates me. And the truth was, the footage simply wasn't clear enough to easily identify the men. And the third man never actually appears on camera, only his truck does. And unfortunately, the angle only captured the front of the vehicle, meaning there was no visible license plate. One thing that the investigators were able to determine fairly quickly, though, was that neither Jocelyn nor Dion had anything to do with Savannah's disappearance. And while we're talking about them, it's important to note that neither friend was ever considered a suspect. Both were cleared very early on in the investigation. So investigators released the surveillance footage to the local news stations, hoping somebody might recognize one of these men, or even recognize the truck. Because even when the footage is blurry, if it's somebody that you know very well, sometimes, you know, that's all it takes. Not to mention, there was always the possibility that somebody had a friend who mentioned that they were going to the other bar that night. Or maybe they had heard something about Savannah. At that point, anything was possible. And investigators were really hoping for secondhand tips to come in, more so than one of the men voluntarily coming forward themselves. Savannah's case had become huge too, especially throughout the Lexington and Richmond areas. So the truth was, even if these men had nothing to do with her disappearance, it wouldn't be all about surprising if they didn't want to admit that they were among the last people to see her before she vanished. Now while investigators were sorting through tips every single day, Savannah's family and friends were dealing with something awful in addition to the fear and the uncertainty. Because they were being targeted by scammers who were pretending to be Savannah's captors. These people would send horrifying messages, claiming that if the family didn't send whatever outrageous amount of money they were demanding, that they would start mailing Savannah's fingers to them, one by one. After looking into the messages, neither investigators nor family ever believed that these were legitimate calls. But even knowing that, I can only imagine the mental toll that it would take on the family. I mean constantly asking yourself, "I know that this is probably fake, but what if it isn't?" I kind of reminds me of the Nancy Guthrie situation. Sometimes Ellen would respond, calling them out and shaming them for what they were doing. And when she did that in return, they would send cryptic messages accusing her of not caring about her daughter or sending things like, "No more nice games, we will vanish and so will spur lock." And it just became this constant cycle of horrible what ifs. And beyond that, it was also a major distraction. Because even though investigators strongly suspected every message was fake, they still had to spend the time looking into them. What's crazy to me too is that even after Savannah was reported missing and even after investigators publicly asked for help, authorities still wouldn't say whether or not they believed foul play was involved. Which I understand wanting to be careful and not jump to conclusions, I really do, but I also think that by refusing to say one way or another, it left a lot of room for rumors to grow. People even started suggesting that Savannah had simply run away. They pointed to the stress in her life, the recent DUI, and everything else that she had going on. And look, maybe I could understand that theory if she had last been seen near a bus station, or an airport, or somewhere that suggested that she had left intentionally. Maybe if personal belongings and clothes and other items were missing, making it look like she had packed up and disappeared. But she went missing after a night out of drinking, wearing clothes that weren't suited for the weather, wearing extremely high heels, so that theory is just not working for me. I do think she was going through a tough time because she did just have the two twin boys, and at the time she wasn't aware that she was having twins, she thought she was only having one baby. People can use that to say that she might have wanted to run away from her life, but she would never. The runaway theory frustrates me every single time. And thankfully though, it never seemed like investigators were heading in that direction. So even though Savannah's family and friends were living through a nightmare, they did try to stay hopeful. They believed that the truth would eventually come out. For them, it just became a game of waiting. Then finally, investigators received a tip that seemed like it actually had some substance behind it. On January 22nd, 2019, 18 days after Savannah disappeared, someone came forward claiming to know the identities of the three men who had been with Savannah that night. And these three men were David Sparks, his brother Isaiah Sparks, and their friend Brandon Bowman. Investigators quickly tracked all three of the men down and they brought them in for questioning. Now of course they interviewed them separately. They wanted to compare stories and they wanted to see whether the details matched or if somebody's account of what happened that night started to fall apart. Interestingly though, all three men told very similar stories when it came to the beginning of the night. According to them, they had gone to Lexington with plans to go bar hopping. Apparently they started at another bar that they felt was too expensive, which is how they eventually ended up at the other bar where they met Savannah and her friends. And their stories lined up generally with what investigators had already been told by Jocelyn and Dion that the two of them eventually left and left Savannah behind with the three men. The men claimed that Savannah had been flirting with all three of them throughout the night. And that as the evening wound down and they became some of the last people left at the bar, they decided instead of calling it a night, they would all head back to David's house and hang out and maybe even continue drinking there. Now I have to pause for a second because could Savannah have been flirting with them? Yes, sure, possible, we don't know, but honestly that part doesn't even really matter to me. My issue is three grown men knowing that she's drunk by herself, her friends have left her and deciding that it's a good idea to take her to one of their houses. I mean, if that's their story, which they all seemed to claim that it was, to me, it feels a little predatory in nature. Which you know what, to be fair, play a devil's ad a pit for a moment, I have been at bars where we meet people, we all go back to the house and we drink, but I don't know, something about it just wasn't feeling right. So they all drove to David's house in Lancaster, Kentucky, which is about 35 miles south of Lexington, roughly a 50 minute drive in the middle of the night. And this was with the three men that Savannah had only just met. And according to all three of these men, Savannah had physical contact with all three of them. All three men claimed that nobody ever actually had intercourse that night, which do with that information what you will. I'm not entirely sure what they were trying to imply happen instead saying that there was physical contact, but they said that there was no intercourse. But either way, it's not a great situation considering that they all admitted that Savannah was extremely intoxicated. According to David, Isaiah and Brandon, they were all hanging out with Savannah when she eventually passed out. They said that's how drunk she was, and most importantly in all that, they knew it. The men claimed that they then carried Savannah into David's bedroom, and they said that they tucked her into the bed because they wanted her to be comfortable. At least that's the story they gave investigators. After that, they said that it was now around 5 a.m., and since the night appeared to be over, Isaiah and Brandon allegedly decided to leave. And honestly, I don't even know what's worse. The idea of Savannah being alone with three men she barely knew, or the idea of her being left alone with one man after everyone else had gone home. According to Isaiah and Brandon. David planned to sleep on the couch and give Savannah privacy in the bedroom, so they said they're goodbyes, and they left. And according to them, that was the last time that anyone besides David ever saw Savannah. Which I just hate this entire situation. Because who really even knows what happened inside that house that night? If Savannah was truly as intoxicated as they claimed that she was, then she wasn't in any position to consent to anything. And again, it just feels very opportunistic, to me at least. And maybe I'm jaded. Who knows? Fair. So the following day, Isaiah and Brandon saw Savannah's face all over social media and the local news coverage after she had been reported missing. And according to them, that's where their involvement ended. David's story, however, it continued. He claimed that after Isaiah and Brandon left, he started to settle in on the couch in his house, and he went to sleep. At some point later, though, he said that he was awakened by Savannah. According to David, he wasn't sure what time it was, but he claimed that Savannah was standing over him asking for his address. So he assumed that she was arranging a ride home, either through a friend or possibly through an Uber. So he told her his address, and then he went back to sleep. And he woke up later. She was gone. So, at least according to him, he assumed that she had gotten her ride and left. And I got up and she wasn't there, my door was unlocked, and she wasn't, she's gone. And I have to say, during his interview, David appeared remarkably calm. He didn't seem upset that the investigators were questioning him. And in act defended, instead, he came across as somebody who understood why the police were there, and assumed that they would want to eventually speak with him. Regardless, he was just extremely relaxed. Almost as though Savannah had been nothing more than a typical one-night stand or brief hangout who then left on her own the next morning. And under normal circumstances, maybe that's exactly how someone would view it, but these were not normal circumstances. Because if you're the last person to see someone before they disappear and they never make it home, everything changes. Needless to say, investigators were highly suspicious of David. So they began pressing Isaiah and Brandon more aggressively during their separate interviews, trying to determine whether either of them knew something that they weren't saying. "Can she hurt that girl?" "Yeah. What do you tell you?" "Yeah. I feel like he eventually would." "Have you been asking about him?" "Yeah. I think the adamant is that he don't know nothing. That's why I ask him like, "Brother, you need to be 100% at night on point because this is what it's all. I could tell him at the end of the day, "Brother, we like that showhouse, brother. You know what I'm saying?" "At me." "At me." "At me." "At me." "At me." So, well that's what happened after that. Was he admitting? Was he trying to distance himself from whatever happened? And I say he, because it actually is not clear who was being interviewed in that clip, Isaiah or Brandon. Regardless, whether it was Isaiah or Brandon in the interview, I mean, did he genuinely believe that David had done something to Savannah? Because he claimed that at the time that they were leaving David's house, not weeks later, not after Savannah was reported missing, but right then and there, that he had concerns. And as they were leaving, they discussed whether it was a good idea to leave David alone with Savannah. And I guess the reason was that each time that Savannah drifted in and out of consciousness, David had been touching her inappropriately. So the implication being that David might assault Savannah once they left. And yet, despite those concerns, they ultimately convinced themselves that David wouldn't hurt her, so they left. Which I mean, if you're even having a conversation about whether someone is doing something like that or something like that could happen, I would hope that the answer would be, yeah, maybe we shouldn't leave her alone. Maybe we should put her in an uber. Maybe we should stay. Something for her own safety, if nothing else. It's just insane to me. And honestly, it's just as insane that you would keep company with someone that you think might do something like that. So everything that the investigators were learning about that night, it pointed in the same direction that something very bad had happened to Savannah. And because of that, search efforts started to become more focused. Up until then, teams had been searching anywhere and everywhere, open fields, wooded areas, bodies of water, places throughout the Lexington area. But now, they had a specific location to focus on. The property where Savannah was last known to have been, David's house. And what's interesting is that the search didn't immediately lead to anything. I'm sure that everyone was hoping that this would finally be the break that the investigators needed. Maybe they'd find evidence explaining what happened to Savannah. Maybe they'd even find Savannah herself. But instead, they found nothing. And even though we know all of this information now, investigators weren't sharing much with the public at the time. They weren't releasing the men's names. They weren't saying any of that. All they would say is that they had interviewed several people and that they were investigating a property that could potentially be connected to the case. No arrests were made and as time passed, people started wondering whether the men that Savannah had been seen with were even responsible at all. Maybe they had nothing to do with it. Maybe Savannah really had just run away. Maybe something completely unrelated had happened to her. Nobody knew. Investigators were keeping almost everything close to the vest. Then, in February, the month after Savannah disappeared and not long after what would have been her 23rd birthday, the investigators made a discovery that immediately raised alarm bells. And this discovery was not made on David's property. Dive teams were searching a nearby pond when they found a small scrap of clothing. It was tiny, but it appeared to be an identical match to the reddish maroon skirt that Savannah had been wearing the night that she disappeared. And I think that once somebody has been missing for more than a week or two, people naturally start fearing the worst. But finding a piece of clothing in a body of water, a place where people often assume evidence or even bodies might be hidden, it's enough to make your stomach sink. Investigators continued searching the pond, but they didn't find anything else. No purse, no additional clothing, and most importantly, nobody. Then the investigation hit a wall, weeks passed, then months, and Savannah's family continue living with the torture of not knowing. I don't want her forgotten. I want her home. We all miss her. I just still think, oh my goodness, maybe I'll see her, maybe she'll surprise me, and it's just another day that goes by with no answers. Meanwhile, investigators remained highly suspicious of David. History simply just didn't sit right. It made the most sense that he had done something to Savannah that he was involved, but suspicion and proof? Those are two very different things. Personally, I don't buy the story that Savannah suddenly just got to ride home and was never seen again, not for a second, but investigators couldn't operate on instinct. They needed evidence. And until they had it, David's story technically remained possible. Thankfully though, investigators didn't give up. They kept digging into David's background, revisiting his story, and searching for anything that might move the case forward. And then in April, they returned to the property. Neighbors described this search differently than the earlier ones. This time, it seemed much more focused on the house itself. According to neighbors, investigators had boarded up windows and they brought in equipment to conduct forensic testing. So this was now more than three months after Savannah disappeared. And that's important because a lot can happen in three months. Evidence can be cleaned up, people can come and go, but still investigators pressed forward. And sure enough, during that search, Luminol testing revealed the presence of human blood inside David's bedroom closet door. So the investigators collected samples for testing. And just the fact that there was blood in David's bedroom, the same bedroom where Isaiah and Brandon claimed Savannah had been sleeping when they left that night, that immediately raised more questions. At the same time, the public still knew very little about what investigators had actually found. And because information was so scarce, rumors started spreading. Some people claimed that there was cell phone footage showing Savannah being sexually assaulted on the night that she disappeared. One source even wrote, "They all took advantage of a drunk girl that night and then the other two left her alone with sparks. They took cell phone video of her. The guys were showing it around at work. She was so drunk she couldn't speak. It was like she couldn't speak English." Now obviously, this is the end of the video. that is incredibly disturbing to hear. And I can't even imagine what Savannah's family and friends were going through as those rumors were spreading. But instead of confirming or denying the claims, the investigators just issued a brief statement saying that they would not comment on whether such footage existed and that they wouldn't comment on anything that wasn't information released by themselves. So, the frustration continued to grow. People wanted answers. Savannah's family wanted answers, but investigators continued defending their decision to remain tight-lipped. - The police can't share a whole lot with family. We don't share a whole lot with media. We keep some things to ourself for obvious reasons. - With every day that passed, the toll on Savannah's family grew heavier. Of course, they wanted to find Savannah alive. That never changed, but as time went on, I think they also desperately just wanted answers. They wanted to know what happened. They wanted to be able to look Savannah's children in the eyes one day and say that they never stopped searching. - The 100 days since Savannah's disappearance has been filled with sleepless nights, cheerful days, and more anxiety than any parent ever met and they could cope with. We miss our energetic personality. We miss how caring and loving she was. We miss how funny she was in our sense of humor. There are so many people and groups that we feel eternally grateful towards. Individuals and small groups that unselkously search on their own or join organizations to help search. We need to know where she is. Her children deserve to know where she is. Thank you. - Then on July 10th, 2019, investigators received a tip unlike any of the others. And the reason that it carried so much weight was because it came from someone already connected to the case. The attorney representing David Sparks family and what that attorney reported, it would completely change the course of the investigation. On July 10th, David's father was outside on the property where Savannah was last known to have been. More specifically, David's parents owned the property, but David lived there. At some point during that day, David's father noticed a smell and not just any kind of smell. Growing up in rural areas, most people become familiar with things like road kill or decomposing animals and this smelled different, much different and much worse. Now, David's father wasn't aware of what was happening. He knew his son had been the primary focus of the investigation for months, but he didn't know what was happening in that moment. So when he noticed the odor, his mind immediately went to the worst possible place. What if it was a decomposing body? What if it was Savannah? So he reported what he had noticed to the family's attorney and the attorney immediately contacted the investigators. Now, what happened next is one of the most shocking parts of this entire case. As investigators were rushing to the property, David himself was on his way to the police station to turn himself in. I'm not sure what happened behind closed doors that day. Maybe David's father told him about contacting the attorney. Maybe David sensed that everything was about to unravel. I don't know, but what we do know is that David walked into that police station very calmly and ready to share information. He told investigators that his car keys were locked inside his vehicle and that he would need a public defender. Meanwhile, investigators were arriving at the property yet again, the same property that they had searched multiple times before. This time, however, they headed directly toward the area where that odor had been reported. And it didn't take long for them to notice something unusual. The corner of what appeared to be a black plastic bag was sticking out of the ground. So they started digging. And what they uncovered was layer after layer of black trash bags, ultimately covering a rolled up rug. And inside that rug was a severely decomposed human body. The body was naked, and the hands and feet were bound. And as if that wasn't horrific enough, the body had been folded in half in what media reports described as a, quote, "unnatural position." The grave itself, too, was shockingly shallow, only about 19 inches deep, which is very incredible to think about. So even though this was a lead and seemed to be like a slam dunk, investigators still needed official testing and confirmation. After all, six months had passed, and it was now the middle of summer. But almost immediately, everyone feared the same thing. They believed that they had found Savannah. The discovery happened during the late evening and early morning hours. So when people woke up on July 11th, they were greeted with the breaking news of this case. It was everywhere, too, local television stations, social media, news websites, and accompanying those reports was a mugshot of David Sparks. Breaking overnight, Kentucky State Police have made an arrest after finding human remains at a property in Gerard County. Believed to be that of missing Richmond mother Savannah Spurlock. David Sparks was booked into jail early this morning in Madison County. Authorities have been searching a home in Gerard County all night after receiving a tip Wednesday evening. Troopers say the discovery was made on the property of a potential suspects family member. And so far, the remains have not been positively identified. David was charged with abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence. Then, just hours after news of the arrest broke, investigators officially confirmed what everyone had already feared. The remains were Savannah's. As a member of this community, I'm well aware of the results that the results of this investigation are incredibly heartbreaking. Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Savannah Spurlock. Over the past six months, the family, community, and law enforcement have been in search of answers. These are the facts of the investigation that we can confirm today. The Richmond Police Department was contacted yesterday afternoon in reference to a possible location of human remains behind a residence on Fallick Road in Gerard County. As a result of the information that was received, the Richmond Police Department notified the Kentucky State Police. Multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Kentucky State Police, Richmond Police Department, Gerard County Police Department, Lancaster Police Department, and the FBI responded to the scene and secured the area. Accordinated search of the property was conducted late last night, resulting in the discovery of human remains just before midnight. The recovered body was removed from the scene and taken to the state medical examiner's office in Frankfurt for an autopsy and identification. As a result of the autopsy, we can now confirm that the remains are those of Savannah Spurlock. Now, the fact that Savannah's body had finally been found and David had been arrested, these were both huge developments. And I don't think that anyone was completely surprised by either one, though. However, people still had questions. One of the biggest being how had Savannah's body not been found sooner? Authorities had searched that property multiple times, right? There had been search teams. There had been cadaver dogs yet somehow. Savannah remained undiscovered for six months. The explanation that the investigators gave was pretty vague. About four months ago, I believe in February, law enforcement responded to the location on Fall lick road in Garrett County, which time a search was done. The property is owned by some of Mr. Sparks' family members. During that search, no body was found, that's correct. The body may have been brought back to the property. There's a lot of things that we're going to be continuing to look at in the coming days and weeks as part of the ongoing investigation, trying to determine when the body may have been placed there. Now, my first thought was whether they believed that David had moved the body at some point after those earlier searches, or was this partly damage control because the previous searches hadn't been as effective as everyone thought. After David's arrest, the investigation continued, because now investigators needed evidence that could prove beyond any doubt that he was responsible for Savannah's murder. Because get this, while yes, David had turned himself in, he hadn't actually confessed to anything. But thankfully, investigators had a lot to work with. During their earlier searches of the property, they had discovered several important pieces of evidence that had never been made public, and all of it was found before Savannah's body was ever recovered. One of the things that they found was a handwritten letter inside David's nightstand. It was sitting at the front of a binder filled with blank white pages. His letter was the only page with anything written on it. And even at the time, investigators found it concerning, which looking back now, it's even more unsettling to think about. And part of that letter read, "I simply don't care at all. I feel no true love for anything now that I know what I really am. I see a greater need to hide my true self, but I just want to be free. I stay in a constant state of aggression, nothing seems to help anymore. I have an abyss for a soul that sucks every attempt to make myself whole. I want my family to understand, maybe just to excuse my actions over the years, but how do you look your mother in the eyes and tell her that you're a born psychopath? That she gave birth to a monster, someone who wouldn't care a bit to squeeze the last breath out of another human, or plunge a knife into their chest and smile about it. My mother. the only person in the world that I never want to disappoint, yet I see it on her face every day. What do I do? A pretty jarring letter, I have to say, honestly. And investigators believed that this letter appeared relatively recent, although David disputed that. He claimed that it had been written years earlier during a particularly dark period in his life, and that it had absolutely nothing to do with Savannah or her case. I'm assuming you all have read the page that was in my finder. That's why I kind of hesitated that was about a year and a half, two years ago. I was dealing with a lot of rage, I was depressed, I was just mad at the world. During that same search though, investigators also noted signs that part of the house appeared to have been cleaned. Specifically, they observed that the lower portions of several walls looked as though they had been wiped down. This was also the search where they found blood inside David's bedroom closet, which testing later showed that that blood belonged to Savannah. A few weeks after that search, investigators obtained snapchat messages between David and one of his friends, and the conversation centered around the investigation and the fact that the authorities were focusing on him, which it's not necessarily the most damning evidence in the world, but it is interesting, right? Because in one message, David wrote, "Two black men and a white psychopath behind the disappearance of a sweet young innocent mother of four, and they're sticking to it." Now, like I said, investigators had already gathered some pretty concerning evidence before Savannah's body was even found, but the evidence that they uncovered afterward, it was just as significant. Starting inside David's bedroom, investigators found a role of packing tape that matched the tape that was used to bind Savannah's hands and feet. That same closet containing Savannah's DNA was also located right next to a rug that was identical to the one that she had been buried in. And as if that wasn't enough, investigators connected the rug to a text conversation that took place the day after Savannah disappeared. Because David had texted his sister saying, "Hey, where did you get that rug? I'm going to get another one." His sister told him that she had purchased it at Walmart, and investigators later obtained surveillance footage showing David going to Walmart and buying another rug. Investigators also examined David's phone history, and they found that he repeatedly searched for updates about Savannah and the investigation. Which to me, that suggests one of two things, either he was feeling guilty and obsessively following the case, or he wanted to know whether investigators were getting closer to him. We even both. One of the searches that the investigators found was, quote, "richman missing mom." And I found that wording very interesting, because maybe he had reduced Savannah to nothing more than a headline in his mind. Or maybe he thought avoiding her actual name would somehow distance the searches from him. I don't know, but like we say, Google will get you every time. A few weeks after David was arrested, another piece of evidence surfaced, too. One of David's neighbors came forward with surveillance footage. Now why they didn't come forward sooner? I have no idea, but I am glad that they eventually did. Apparently, the neighbors had experienced a break-in just weeks before Savannah disappeared. So because of that, they installed a camera that happened to be pointing directly toward David's property. And when investigators reviewed the footage from the night that Savannah disappeared, they saw her enter the house. But they never saw her come back out through the front door. Now was that a shocking revelation? Not really. But having video evidence, showing that Savannah entered the home and was never seen leaving, that was incredibly important. Given everything that the investigators had uncovered, prosecutors increased the charges against David. He was now facing charges of murder, tampering with physical evidence, and abuse of a corpse. Because David's stating as it was, at least it starts the closure for them. You know, and I'm sure they're kind of the time that they didn't think they were ever going to get that. And while we're on the topic and talking about charges, I also really quickly do want to mention about the other two men who were there that night. Neither Isaiah nor Brandon were ever charged with any crime related to Savannah's death. And that's something that people still debate online. To some believe that they must have known more than they admitted to. Others think that they were protecting David. That said though, the investigators have consistently said that they had nothing to do with Savannah's murder. I 100% believe that he did it alone. There's nothing else that indicated that anybody else was involved. After David's arrest, authorities noticed some unusual behavior from him while he was in jail. Now we already know that he enjoyed writing based on that letter that the investigators found. But apparently he liked drawing too. Because one drawing recovered from his cell, it depicted two women. One was naked while the other appeared to be bound. Both details mirrored aspects of what had happened to Savannah. So when investigators first saw these drawings, they were rightfully very concerned because maybe David was trying to communicate something. Maybe Savannah wasn't his only victim. Well, first thing came to mind was, is there another victim? And then the second thing was is, I'm sure glad that we did our job and he's in jail. Beyond those drawings, however, David remained largely silent. He never sat down, never gave a detailed confession explaining what had happened that night, never explained why he killed Savannah. And that's one of the most frustrating parts about this case. Even investigators don't have a clear motive. David had never met Savannah before that night. There was no known history between the two of them. Now, investigators have also stated that they believe that Savannah's body was on the property the entire time, which is pretty shocking, not just because of what it means, but because of what they were willing to publicly acknowledge. And understandably, that only made people more upset. How was she missed? There she was the whole time. But something that I ask myself actually still when I think about Savannah is, how did we not find her? How did I not find her? I actually stood on the strawberry patch, like where it was. Now, sometimes there isn't a motive that neatly explains everything, right? Sometimes evil people do terrible things just because they want to. And investigators believe that David saw an opportunity that night that Savannah was extremely intoxicated and vulnerable and that he seized the opportunity. The autopsy was unable to determine an exact cause of death because of the decomposition levels in her remains. However, the manner of death, it was ruled a homicide. I'm kind of, you know, it's hard to talk about, you just don't ever have to hear anything like that. It's pretty gross. So I'm still understanding. With it worse than you thought it would be. How could it be getting in the way? But I'll be honest, not as bad as I thought it could have been. So that was good to me, that it was not as bad as we thought it could have been. So we're actually able to, you know, lighter to rest than not, you know, didn't think that would ever be possible. We know after so long. So I think there's a little bit of closure in the hat. In December of 2020, David pleaded guilty to all three charges. Many people believe that he chose to plead guilty in order to avoid a trial and avoid publicly discussing what happened to Savannah, but David never explained his reasoning. In exchange for the plea, he was sentenced to 50 years in prison. However, he would become eligible for parole after serving 20 years. I think that there were definitely some mixed emotions surrounding this plea deal and his sentence. I think we're all leaving that hearing, thinking that's it. That's all we get. I don't know what made him plead guilty. I do not imagine it's remorse because behind those eyes today, I did not see that. For many people, knowing that the person responsible for your loved one's murder could potentially be released one day, that is incredibly difficult. Our fight is just begun because Mr. Sparks will not be getting out on parole. Her sons will be grown men fighting for a mother that he stole from them. Now I want to say this too, there's also been a lot of debate online in my opinion victim shaming saying, what led up to Savannah's last night out and the riskiness of her behavior and how she should have been doing that and again, a lot of it veers on victim blaming. But two of my favorite Reddit comments really push back on that and I want to read these too. Two different losers impregnated this woman. One bigger loser decided to murder her and instead of commenting on the horrific violence that men inflict on women every single day, a whole bunch of tiny dick losers on Reddit are judging her. Another says, two things can be true. What happened to her was horrible and a mom of four kids under five at 23, two of which are a month old, going out then leaving with strange men is irresponsible behavior. Now, I think one of the hardest things for Savannah's family is that they still don't know the why. And it kind of reminds me a little bit of Brian Cobrager, right? And the conversation that people have surrounding that, why should someone be allowed to take a plea deal without giving anything back? Part of that agreement should be answers. saying everything, providing some measure of closure to the family. What matters most, of course, though, is that Savannah did receive justice. What are the unanswered questions for you? As we sit here tonight and don't ever have to hear from David Sparks again, hopefully. Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest unanswered is the why. I think we're all just not understanding the why. I mean, it seemed to be a jovial night out. And the other two men left and something happened in that time period. And he took that action. And I think that's the biggest question for me. The questions we did have answered. I think we all felt a lot more peace after that because the sentencing was so short. It was so weird and his face would just pop up on the screen and scare you. You know, it's like those Zoom calls are so weird. And so it felt really peaceful for me to get a lot of questions answered and to really let other family members ask what they needed to ask. Even though we don't know the how or the why, I definitely feel a lot more peaceful about things. And hopefully her family feels like they can finally breathe at least a little bit. As unbelievable as it feels, years have already passed since 2019. Savannah's children have been growing up. And by all accounts, they're happy, they're healthy, and they are surrounded by people who love them tremendously. They're being raised the way that Savannah would have wanted. And her family never misses an opportunity to tell them about their mother and just how much she loved them. This is a very difficult and heartbreaking case because not only is it so senseless, but also you have this guy who is admitting that he's a psychopath and that he doesn't feel and could kill someone without feeling. Then you have, and this isn't to shame her friends, but you have friends leaving their very intoxicated friend. So if anything, I think that this should serve as a massive point of education. And to remember, never leave your friends behind. Always use the buddy system. Always stay in touch. It doesn't matter if they have a phone and especially if they're drunk. And again, this isn't to shame her friends at all. Savannah is an adult. She's able to make her own decisions, but you never know what kind of predators are out there lurking. Even the ones who have a smile on their face. So it's best to just err on the side of caution. All right, guys. Thank you so much for tuning into another case. And until the next one, stay safe. Bye.