Woman’s body found at Tomahawk

By Lilly Adkins

BSN Associate Editor

TOMAHAWK —Kentucky State Police are conducting a death investigation in Martin County involving a 22-year-old woman and a man at the scene who was arrested.

Brooklyn Sloas Moore, 22, was found unresponsive inside a residence on Tomahawk Road, and the cause is still under investigation.

Martin County Coroner Chris Todd said they were at the location for approximately seven hours and that he had taken the body to the medical examiner’s office for autopsy.

Kenneth L. Shoptaw, 43, of Tomahawk, is charged with tampering with physical evidence.

According to Shoptaw’s arrest report, he was the caller who notified authorities regarding Moore’s being unresponsive. While the officials were talking with him, Shoptaw admitted to having removed hypodermic syringes from the scene and throwing them over a hill.

KSP Post 9 received a call from Martin County 911 dispatch on Aug. 19 regarding a call of an unresponsive female, a release issued by the KSP said.

KSP investigators responded to the residence, where they located Moore unresponsive inside.

Sloas was pronounced dead at the scene by the Martin County Coroner’s Office.

“The medical examiner estimated that she had been dead for three or four days,” Todd said. “I took her for the autopsy on Friday.”

Moore is survived by her husband, Robert Moore; her parents, Annetta Wilson and William Scott Sloas; two stepchildren, Trinity Moore and Austin Baisden; and nine siblings, Alex Justice, Joseph Justce, Tristan Eden, Nevaeh Messer, Isiah Brown, Molly Brown, Karlee Brown, Adian McCoy and Cody Lin.

Funeral services were held at 11 a.m. today (Aug. 25) in the Warfield Chapel of Callaham Funeral Home in Warfield.

KSP Det. Kevin Newsome is leading the investigation and was assisted at the scene by KSP personnel.