CLARK COUNTY/POWELL COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — A Winchester man is charged with murder following his arrest in connection to an overdose death from May, and now police are investigating a second overdose death that he is connected to.
For seven years, Kaylieb Thompson and Reacheal Dawson had built a life together. Thompson has an 11-year-old son that Reacheal had cared for as her own while planning on getting a medical degree.
"It's lonely. It's like she's everyone but not- it's like she's not here, but you can feel her," said Thompson. "She was so beautiful, and that was her soul. That wasn't just her speaking outside. That's how she lived inside. She was peace, she was joy. She was nurturing. She was kind, she was loving."
But Thompson's entire world came crashing down on Friday, June 27 when Reacheal had gone missing. Thompson says his son told him he couldn't find Dawson after she said she was going on a walk around 3:30 p.m. that day.
"So I texted her at 6:19 p.m. I said, 'I'm on my way to Walmart' and she didn't reply, which was - which was weird. You know, we don't usually take her long. She's always replies, she always calls back," Thompson recalls.
Thompson says he called police about the situation and also contacted Dawson's sister. Police were able to track down Dawson's location at the Red Roof Inn in Winchester through the 'Find My Phone' app a family member provided.
"So halfway to Winchester her sister calls me and she says whatever you're doing you need to stop. I said, 'No, I'm on my way. I'm on my way," said Thompson. "She said, 'Kaylieb, Reacheal is gone.'"
Thompson says the next thing he remembers is pulling into the Red Roof Inn.
During the police investigation, they found that 44-year-old Brian P. Epperson had rented the room at the Red Roof Inn in Winchester.
That same man is now facing a murder charge in Powell County, and documents in that case make ties to Dawson's death.
A criminal complaint reads that capsules found in Epperson's truck at the Red Roof Inn are similar to ones that police believed caused an earlier overdose death back on Saturday, May 31.
On that day, police found 32-year-old Kristen Morris dead in an Airbnb that Epperson rented in Stanton.
The complaint lists a toxicology report that stated Morris suffered an "apparent drug overdose." According to the report, testing showed 57,000 NG/ML of methamphetamine in Morris's blood. The coroner says 200 NG/ML is a typical overdose amount.
Right now, he is only facing a drug possession charge in Clark County. With Epperson's murder charge in Powell County for Morris's death, Thompson is praying this will be a step closer to justice for Dawson.
"I hope everyone does find what I had with Reacheal. Because a level that deep and a level a love that much love is," details Thompson. "You don't have room for more. You don't have room for no more love once you find that person. It is your heart if you can sit in the field."
Epperson is being held at the Clark County Detention Center.
