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Forensic Files II

The Ink Beads

Forensic Files II

Podcast Admin

True Crime, Society & Culture

4.5902 Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2022

⏱️ 22 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

51-year-old father and teacher Bill Sparkman is found hanging naked from a tree with the letters “FED” scrawled on his chest. With barely any evidence to work with, investigators turn to these letters for answers… which leads to a surprising conclusion that no one saw coming. To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Up next, a family pays respects at a cemetery and gets a rude surprise.

0:13.0

They saw the body, called the police,

0:15.9

it was a pretty horrifying sight.

0:17.6

A message is written on the dead man.

0:20.5

It was the fact that those letters were on his chest

0:22.4

that made it so unusual.

0:24.0

We got confirmation of that today from the Clay County Corner.

0:27.5

He said that the word fed was written on the body and felt-tip marker.

0:31.5

Can a test of how those letters were written lead to a suspect?

0:36.0

The forensic anthropologist who examined his body was a trained illustrator, which

0:41.4

made her uniquely qualified to solve this mystery.

0:45.0

They call me the Boondock, Bonnock.

0:48.0

That little corner of Kentucky is different.

0:51.0

A lot of strange things happen. So, Eastern Kentucky is deep in Appalachia and even locals will tell you that Clay County is about as deep as it gets.

1:24.0

Clay County had a reputation going back to the 19th century of blood feuds,

1:30.0

a lot of smuggling, and of course when prohibition came it was a big part of

1:35.8

running moonshine and illicit liquor to urban areas including Chicago and

1:40.6

places like that. The area is heavily forested sparsely popular. Chicago and

1:43.4

places like that. The area is heavily forested,

1:44.0

sparsely populated, and extremely isolated.

1:48.0

There's no main roads that travel through there.

1:51.0

There's no main industry, and it's a very poor community.

...

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