TheTimesTribune.com, Corbin, KY

Local News

Related Photos

  • Photo by Samantha Swindler

    0429 Jeremy Johnson Bobbie Walters

Discussion

April 29, 2009

Still searching

Officers find nothing after a two-day search behind Grubb’s trailer

By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor

Acting on their latest tip Monday — this time from a suspect in jail — police were confident they had finally pinpointed the location of Jeremy Johnson’s remains.

Officers with the Kentucky State Police and Knox County Sheriff’s Department began searching the creek behind Daniel Grubb’s trailer at about 3 p.m. Monday and continued all night and all day Tuesday. A county backhoe was brought in to dredge a portion of the creek where Bobbie Ray Walters told officers they would find Johnson’s body.

Both Walters and Grubb were charged this month with tampering with physical evidence for allegedly moving Johnson’s body. Both have pleaded not guilty.

On Tuesday, Knox County Sheriff John Pickard brought Walters from jail to the site — between KY 6 and Smith Hollow Road in Knox County — and asked him to point out the location of the body.

The circumstances of Johnson’s presumed death are still unclear, but Walters told officers on Tuesday that he and two others had carried the body from Grubb’s trailer and buried him in the dry creek bed last summer.

Two days of searching revealed nothing and officers dug eight feet deep in some places along the creek. Walters continued to insist the body was in the area, but by Tuesday evening, the search was called off without any success.

Johnson, 25, of Woodbine, was last seen leaving the now defunct Angels & Wings Restaurant in Corbin last June. About a month after his disappearance his car was found on a rural path off of KY 459, about four miles from Johnson’s home, but there was no sign of Johnson.

Neither Grubb nor Walters has been charged with Johnson’s death.

Text Only
Local News
  • Police search for suspect in highway beating

    It was called by some as “road rage,” but Barbourville Police say last Saturday evening’s fight at a city intersection was definitely an assault. And they are still looking for the man who police say threw the first punch.

    May 24, 2012

  • Woman gets five years for drugs

    In U.S. Federal Court Wednesday, Heather A. Collins, who was called by Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove as a “kind of leader for the group,” was sentenced to five years after using prescription forms to acquire various drugs.

    May 24, 2012

  • Father, son rearraigned for meth charges

    A son and father were rearraigned Wednesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in London.

    May 24, 2012

  • 0523 chs Brady Foley.jpg Hounds hold on

    Corbin Coach Rob Ledington rolled the dice after his Redhounds took a 6-0 lead, but it paid off with an 8-7 win over Whitley County as Corbin advanced to the 50th District Championship tonight with an ace up their sleeve.

    May 23, 2012 1 Photo

  • Drugs suspected in fatal Knox County crash

    Drug use may have been a factor in a crash Monday in Knox County in which an 11-year-old boy was killed, according to Kentucky State Police Post-10 Harlan Public Affairs Officer Trooper Shane Jacobs and Sgt. Jimmy Young.

    May 23, 2012

  • Marie Rader wins 89th Rep. District Primary

    Republican Marie Rader won the primary election for the 89th District House of Representatives.

    May 23, 2012

  • Barton wins another circuit court clerk term

    Whitley County voters went with experience when it came to electing the next circuit court clerk, choosing incumbent Gary Barton, according to unofficial election results.

    May 23, 2012

  • Bunch victor in 82nd House District

    For incumbent State Representative Regina Petrey Bunch, the votes came in bunches Tuesday night.

    May 23, 2012

  • Voter turnout higher than expected

    The election day ran fairly smooth in Whitley, with the exception of several precincts losing power briefly and a few complaints regarding signs being too close to polling places.

    May 23, 2012

  • Kenneth S. Stepp to face Hal Rogers in fall

    Two Democrats, Kenneth S. Stepp, of Clay County, and Micheal Ackerman, of Rowan County, running for the Fifth Congressional District ran a heads-together race in the 30-county district.

    May 23, 2012