First- My deepest condolence to Mr. Sparkman's family and friends. No matter what the final outcome of this case turns out to be, Mr. Sparkman was a beloved member of a family and community who is mourning his death.
Second-Again, I would like to post some FACTS and correct some misconceptions surrounding this case, and this area. There's already way too much psycho talk out there, I'm disturbed at finding it seeping in here.
Third-I live in Kentucky. I live to the South-west of where this happened though some years before I lived much closer. I was born in this region and have lived here most of my life. so I know the people, the culture, etc.
First off- Very Little (as of Saturday morning)has been released, revealed, confirmed by LEOs. They will not even confirm that he was murdered. I believe its a reasonable assumption, but its still not official. I truly do not feel they are trying to "cover this up" or "Sweep it under the rug". Mostly, I believe its because it is an on-going investigation, but also there is the potential to turn into an explosive situation and I believe they are trying to calm things down and not fuel wild speculation. I wish them luck with that.
Officially, the "FBI is working with Local Law Enforcement". They were called in early on. Unofficially, I have heard that the FBI has pretty much taken over the case. Kentucky State Police do a fine job- they are NOT local yokel Barney Fife characters but dedicated men and women who have a tough job. There is a FBI regional office there, in London. Also DBNF is Federal Property, also Mr. Sparkman is considered a Federal Employee. As a census worker, he covered a five county area- Clay county was one of those counties. Officially Census work haw been suspended in Clay county, Ive heard it has also been suspended in other areas, but I can't confirm that.
Daniel Boone National Forest is Federal Property, however-it is not one big solid area, it is big chunks of several Kentucky counties. Roads go in and out of the Forest, so that its possible (probable) that you can drive on these roads and not know if you are on Federal Property or not. Families live all along the edges of the forest. Also there are Public Access roads to established Cemeteries- many of these cemeteries are very old, and people do still visit them. Some folks have asked- "If he was doing Census work, What was he doing in the forest?" So far, all indications are that he was indeed doing census work.
He was most likely killed one or two days before he was found. Being found on 9/12 is a coincidence, though it is possible he was killed on 9/11. I really don't think the date is significant, but who knows?
In Kentucky, the County Coroner is an elected position, and generally is an owner of a funeral home. A Coroner job is pretty much to declare a person dead. They do NOT do autopsies, they do not do examinations. They are the official paperwork guys. The folks who do autopsies are Pathologists (11 of them) who work in the Office of the State Medical Examiner. These guys did around 2,300 autopsies last year. They also do exams on living people to determine things like if child abuse is going on. They are a busy bunch. These guys have a solid reputation, they won awards, they know what they are doing. Still- they frequently get back-up and unlike what you see on CSI- it takes time. Examiners offices ACROSS the country are generally over-worked and underfunded, they do not work in esthetically pleasing super high tech labs. I for one would love it if folks would step away from their CSI-Tvs, visit a real lab, hang out with these guys for a day or so, then flood elected representatives with demands for funding. These guys do a brutal job and its much much less glamorous than as seen on tv.
I have a good friend who is a County Coroner. He told me that he has personally seen a body go almost to bone in less than a week. With the warm temps and high humidity and rainfall, and the fact that this body had contact to with the ground-decomp would defiantly have set in. This is most likely why cremation was advised, also it would make cause/time of death difficult to determine. However- there is a little bone in your neck (hyoid) that is usually broken in cases of hanging and garroting that is easy to find even with advanced de-comp. (easy being a relative term- I couldn't find it) I have NOT come across any thing to indicate he was tortured (except for the actual hanging/garroting.) There have been rumors that he was shot. There have been credible but not official rumors that the crime took place elsewhere and he was moved to this location. There have also been somewhat credible rumors that his body was mutilated more than what has been reported.
He did NOT stumble over someones moon-shining still. Historically, moonshine was (note the past tense)a problem in KY. I doubt there are any serious 'shiners left. Yeah I know people who can build a still and produce 'moonshine. No, I'm not going to tell you who they are. Now, people distill a little for personal consumption or as part of some Folk-life program. Boot-legging is much easier and profitable, but it is not the kind of thing you "stumble" into.
Yes it is Pot Harvesting time in DBNF- and in many federal (and private)lands. This does not strike me as pot-related. I believe if he stumbled into someones pot-patch- first he would have been shot, not hung, and secondly, he would have never been seen again. Also, Pot patches are away from peoples homes- it would take some stumbling to come across one.
Stumbling across a Meth lab is a real possibility. People do cook meth in homes. There have been MEth Labs found in the middle of towns. Don't last long because it wis pretty obvious what was going on- Meth cookers generally don't have real high IQs. There is certainly a great deal of violence connected with Meth Labs and Meth Cookers. However, again I feel that the victim would have been shot, then disposed of. I find it hard to believe a Meth-cooker would invite an investigation- but Meth does evil things to people and it possible that someone was cranked up and went berserker.
This makes me think this was some sort of hate crime. It is true that people in the region are suspicious of, and even resentful of the
Government. However-this goes back a couple hundred years, and isn't really focused on one party or the other. When one studies the history of the region, one would understand and probably even sympathize with this attitude. However people are suspicious of the Government but they mostly want to be left alone- they would NOT do something that is going to bring the Government into their area and down on their heads. This strikes me as an extremist act.
Because of the remoteness of the area, it has drawn all kinds of fringe elements- everything from peace loving back to earth hippie types to hard core militia types. My feeling is that this is going to be one of the wing-nut types(could be either side, but lets face it more likely to be right-wing) who have either moved into the area, or a native who has been heavily influenced by these movements/elements. This does not strike me as a "native" crime. A native might shoot you, I won't argue there- but they would not do the whole elaborate staged crime scene.
My feeling is someone is trying to make some kind of statement. Its possible that this is a ruse to throw off investigators, to misdirect but I don't think so. It would just be too easy to dispose of the body in a way that it simply wouldn't not be found.
I strongly doubt racism played a part. I am also doubtful of a 'gay-hate" crime. There is no indications he was gay. He did have a son- I know that doesn't mean he wasn't gay, but it makes it less likely. Mostly I think this because I believe something other than "FED" would have been written.
In this area, "FED" could mean any number of agencies. Poaching is a problem- so it could be Forest Service, or even Fish and Wildlife folks. Some people have a serious grudge against the Park Service- Big South Fork is close by- though I think if that were the case- he would have been found there, but who knows. ATF is a strong possibility-people afraid of having their guns taken Tobacco could also be an issue.(I doubt it but its possible) Could be health and human services- or Social service- maybe someone lost custody of a child. There was a social worker killed abut a year or so ago- so thats a possibility- though that was a quick shooting not a staged crime scene.
Unfortunately, the Census angle remains. There has been a lot of crazy,inflammatory talk on local Internet forums about census workers putting "tracers" on people houses and cars. Of course theres lots of crazy talk on those forums anyway. It is astonishing what people will say.
I have written a couple of diaries on this. I do hope that people will not make insulting remarks about the residents of this area.