By Jeremy D. Wells and Charles Romans
Carter County Times
An arrest has been made in connection with the disappearance of a Carter County man who had been missing since early August. Kentucky State Police Trooper Sparks, with Post 14 in Ashland, confirmed on Monday that the body of David Stallard had been recovered in the Olive Hill area, and that 37 year old Christopher Webb, of Morehead, had been arrested in connection with Stallard’s death.
Webb has been charged with murder, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with physical evidence, and was booked into the Carter County Detention Center following an arrest on Saturday, September 12. Murder (KRS 507.020) is a capital offense in Kentucky, punishable by life imprisonment or death by lethal injection, while abuse of a corpse (KRS 525.120) and tampering with physical evidence (KRS 524.100) are Class D Felonies, punishable by up to five years in prison each.
No further information on the arrest or the details surrounding the discovery of Stallard were available at press time. However, Trooper Sparks said the case is active and ongoing, with information and evidence still being gathered, and more of that information would be made available as details emerge.
Stallard, age 49, first went missing on August 2, according to family members. The last images of him were captured on home security camera footage near his Olive Hill area home. A pond on Stallard’s property was also reportedly drained during the search, though whether police located any evidence during that search has not been verified.
Lifelong friend of Stallard, Angela Ramey, said on Monday that it was a terrible ending to the long search for Stallard.
“We found him,” Ramey explained.
She and Stallard’s sister had discovered the body, she said, on a neighbor’s property. That neighbor was the man arrested, Christopher Webb. Ramey said Stallard and Webb had lived next to one another for over a year and had been present together at cookouts, so she couldn’t grasp how everything could have gone so wrong.
“I just feel so sorry for his babies,” Ramey said.
Stallard leaves behind three sisters and three children (David, Whitney, and Jasmine) as well as grandchildren. There are no funeral arrangements as of yet, she said, but Stallard’s daughter Whitney has started a GoFundMe to help defray the cost of his final expenses.
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
