Nestled in the heart of Central Appalachia, Letcher County is one of the most remote places in Kentucky. In its earliest days, the families that settled the area made their living through timber logging, but by the early 20th century, it became a hub for coal mining. Today, this small community is home to just over 20,000 residents. And while its poverty rate nearly triples the United States average, it’s a tight-knit place where family and community are everything — the type of place where everyone knows everyone else. NPR described it as having a “culture of looking after one another when floods and other hardships arrive,” and there’s a banner inside the county public library that reads “These people are my family, these mountains are my home.”
What happened on Sept. 19, 2024, not only shook things up in Letcher County, but it also potentially exposed something much more sinister. That Thursday afternoon, District Judge Kevin Mullins and County Sheriff Shawn Stines had what looked like a normal lunch together at a sports bar in the county seat of Whitesburg before meeting up at the county courthouse a few hours later. While in the judge’s…
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