Officers pursued a red Chevrolet after relatives reported two women were being kept from leaving, authorities said.
BARBOURVILLE, Ky. — A mother’s tearful 911 call about two young women who could not leave a car set police searching across county lines June 6, but officers found all three occupants fatally shot when the pursuit ended.
The emergency began as a report of possible domestic violence and became an investigation into an apparent double murder-suicide. The Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said 21-year-old James Priddy was believed to have shot his girlfriend, 18-year-old Jadeance Ann Marie Hale, and Hale’s friend, 19-year-old Kira Lila Hope Asher, before killing himself. The bodies were found in a red Chevrolet Cobalt after police followed it from Knox County into Laurel County.
The information that launched the response came in pieces. Hale, Asher and Priddy had left a Barbourville residence to get something to eat, the sheriff’s office said. Their parents became concerned after the three left. Regional reports said Hale planned to break up with Priddy and had asked Asher to come along for support. Relatives then received information that changed the outing into an emergency: The women were with Priddy, and he was not letting them leave. Police have not released the full chain of calls, texts and conversations that led the family to contact 911.
Audio reported by WKYT captured a dispatcher relaying that a woman had been trying to leave the man all day. The dispatcher said the man had taken off with her. Other reports described the caller as a mother who was crying as she explained that her daughter and another woman were in a car and could not get out. Those words gave police a moving target rather than a fixed address. Officers had to locate the Chevrolet while dispatchers continued gathering information about who was inside and where the vehicle might be headed.
The Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said it was contacted at about 10:45 p.m. by the Barbourville Police Department. Barbourville officers were following the Chevrolet in connection with the reported domestic violence complaint. The driver did not stop. The pursuit then moved from Knox County into southern Laurel County, requiring officers in the second jurisdiction to join the response. Initial statements did not give the exact time the car crossed the county line, the speeds reached or the distance traveled.
Police attempted to box in the Chevrolet on Kentucky Route 312. The car struck another vehicle and stopped, the sheriff’s office said. Barbourville Police Sgt. Karl Middleton later described an officer going to the driver’s side and discovering three people with gunshot wounds. Deputies arriving shortly after also found Hale, Asher and Priddy dead. Authorities did not report that police fired into the car. The other vehicle’s occupants were not publicly identified in the initial coverage, and no serious collision injuries were announced.
That discovery changed the work at the scene. Officers who had been trying to stop a vehicle and reach two people reported to be in danger had to preserve the Chevrolet as evidence. Emergency medical and rescue personnel responded, but the three occupants were dead. Investigators had to document the car, the collision area and the positions of evidence before the vehicle could be removed. The roadway became the meeting point for agencies that had started the response in different counties.
The Laurel County Sheriff’s Office, Knox County Sheriff’s Office and Barbourville Police Department participated in the investigation. Kentucky State Police and Corbin police assisted. Laurel County Ambulance, the London-Laurel Rescue Squad, Laurel County Emergency Management and the West Knox County Volunteer Fire Department also responded. Each organization could hold part of the record, including dispatch logs, officer reports, video and time stamps. Combining those materials is necessary to produce a single account of an emergency that moved between jurisdictions.
The sheriff’s office announced that the physical evidence pointed to Priddy as the shooter. Hale and Asher were found with fatal gunshot wounds, and Priddy was believed to have died from a self-inflicted shot. Officials described the case as an apparent murder-suicide and said the investigation remained ongoing. They did not publicly announce that another person was being sought. They also did not release the exact sequence of the gunfire, creating a crucial gap between the family’s first warning and the officers’ discovery.
Dispatch records may help narrow that gap. The time of the first call could be compared with the moment Barbourville police located the Chevrolet. Phone records could show the last time Hale or Asher communicated with relatives. Dashboard cameras might show whether officers could see movement inside the car. Body-camera video could document what they found when the Chevrolet stopped. Investigators could also compare those times with medical and physical evidence from inside the car. None of those records had been released in full in the reports that followed the deaths.
The reports also left unclear what officers knew about a firearm before the pursuit ended. The public statements described a possible domestic violence complaint and information that the women were not allowed to leave. They did not say whether the 911 caller reported seeing a gun or whether police received a warning that shots had been fired. That distinction could help explain the decisions officers made while following and trying to contain the car. No agency announced wrongdoing by the pursuing officers.
The reason Asher was in the Chevrolet became clearer through relatives’ statements. She was Hale’s close friend and had accompanied her because Hale wanted support while ending the relationship. Miranda Hamilton, Asher’s sister, told local reporters the women had grown up together. Their closeness was later reflected in funeral services held one after the other at Arnett & Steele Funeral Home in Pineville on June 14. Both women were buried at Ketchum Cemetery in Bryants Store.
Hale’s obituary said she had a bright smile and a sense of humor that made others laugh. It described Asher as family and as her closest friend. Asher’s obituary identified her mother and other relatives and marked a life that began Dec. 4, 2006. Hale was born March 5, 2008. The obituary details were separate from the police record but added context to the family’s decision to hold linked services and to a fundraiser created for both women’s funeral costs.
Priddy was identified as being from Bimble. Hale was listed as being from Flat Lick, and Asher was from Lily. The locations underscore how the incident touched several communities in Knox and Laurel counties. Barbourville served as the starting point of the reported emergency, while Route 312 in Laurel County became the place where officers first directly saw the three occupants after the pursuit.
Because the person police identified as the shooter was dead, the case was not expected to produce the hearings and trial that often make evidence public in a homicide prosecution. The remaining procedure centered on the investigation itself. Detectives had to complete interviews, review the emergency communications and determine when the shots were fired. The agencies could also examine how information moved between dispatchers and officers as the pursuit crossed the county line.
Deputy Gilbert Acciardo said the deaths were unimaginable for the families and difficult for the first responders who saw the scene. His comments captured the outcome of a response that began with relatives urgently trying to get help. The call succeeded in bringing officers to the Chevrolet, but the available public record does not establish whether the women were still alive when police first located it.
The sheriff’s office continued to classify the case as an active investigation after identifying Priddy as the apparent shooter. No date was announced for releasing a final report, additional recordings or a complete timeline of the June 6 emergency.
Author note: Last updated July 10, 2026.