The investigation into the death of Brittany Stykes took another turn this week as a house in Pendleton County, Ky. was raided by law enforcement in both Kentucky and from the Brown County Sheriff’s Office.

Kentucky State Police officers served a search warrant acquired by the BCSO, at a home in Pendleton County, BCSO Chief Deputy Carl Smith confirmed. Multiple news reports stated the home was on Hogg Ridge Road in Falmouth. The raid came off tips acquired from BCSO investigative work in Owen and Carroll counties in Kentucky.

“Any time you serve a search warrant you hope you find the stars, but sometimes you have to settle for the moon,” Smith said in a phone interview. “What we’ve collected, I can’t go into the details, but I still think it was a successful search warrant. It didn’t hurt our case. It just more or less confirmed what we already knew.”

According to Smith, BCSO acquired the search warrant to search the home, and then the KSP executed the warrant, before allowing BCSO deputies inside the home to search. Smith even said a KSP evidence technician took the evidence from the house and gave it to the BCSO.

Despite this latest update to the Stykes investigation, Smith said he still doesn’t have a concrete timetable to when an indictment could come. Smith plans on handing over information to the Brown County Prosecutor’s office, where they can potentially give information or call a witness in front of a grand jury. A new grand jury was formed earlier this month.

“We would like to start soon,” Smith said. “I don’t know when we will get everything going. But I would like to submit it to this particular grand jury. There’s a lot to present, but it’s not going to be done in one setting. It’s going to take over two or three.”

“This (process) may take two weeks, it may take eight weeks,” added Smith.

It’s been more than two years since Brittany Stykes was killed Aug. 28, 2013 on US 68, about a half-mile from the intersection with Gooselick Road, between Georgetown and Ripley. Stykes was found slumped over the seat of her bright yellow Jeep Wrangler by a passing motorist, who called emergency services. Stykes was declared dead from gunshot wounds in her head.

Stykes was just 22-years old at the time of her death, and an autopsy revealed that she was 17-weeks pregnant with another child. Stykes daughter, Aubree, who was 14-months old at the time, was grazed with a bullet in the head and needed several surgeries.

Aubree Stykes currently lives with her father, Shane Stykes, in another county in Ohio.

Soon after the death and investigation began, Shane Stykes and a second individual were interviewed and subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing, and both were not considered suspects.

In a separate interview with Local 12 last month in Cincinnati, Smith said there was a financial motive for the killing.

“Someone owed money. This was done to get a point across. He wanted his money,” Smith told Local 12.

Stykes’ mother Mary Dodson, told WCPO-TV that she didn’t know of any connection between Pendleton County and her daughter.

Brittany and Aubree Stykes are shown in a photo taken shortly before the tragic event in 2013.
https://www.newsdemocrat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_BrittanyAndAubreeStykes.jpgBrittany and Aubree Stykes are shown in a photo taken shortly before the tragic event in 2013.

By Daniel Karell

dkarell@civitasmedia.com

Reach Daniel Karell at 937-378-6161. Follow him on Twitter @GNDKarell