Kentucky police arrested three people last Wednesday in connection with last year’s death of a newborn boy who was allegedly the product of incest.
On March 1, 2023, Harrison Memorial Hospital’s emergency room called Pendelton County dispatchers about conducting a welfare check at a home where they believed a baby boy was in distress. The newborn’s mother, Kimberly Shepperd, 28, had come to the hospital claiming she had suffered a miscarriage, according to WXIX.
Hospital staff contacted authorities as they believed the infant had been left behind. Officers who responded to the vacant home found the 6-pound baby on a mattress and wrapped in a blanket.
“The placenta was still attached to the baby,” Falmouth Police Chief Marty Hart stated.
An investigation began after the unresponsive baby was pronounced dead at the hospital. A DNA test — completed after nine months — confirmed that Shepperd’s uncle, Allen Newkirk, 62, fathered her late son.
According to WCPO, Sheppard admitted that her uncle impregnated her and she hid the pregnancy. After giving birth, her grandfather, Billy Shepperd, 82, took her to the hospital. She reportedly told her grandfather she miscarried.
WXIX reported that the newborn’s cause of death remains a mystery a year later.
Billy Shepperd, who is charged with abuse of a corpse, is free on a $5,000 bond. Newkirk is charged with incest and is jailed on a $20,000 bond. Kimberly Shepperd is charged with incest, abuse of a corpse, and concealing a birth. She is free on a $20,000 bond.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Feature Photo: Allen Newkirk and Kimberly Shepperd/Falmouth Police Department]
