Bell County

An unthinkable act of violence in Kentucky has resulted in an unlikely arrest over 250 miles away in Tennessee.

On September 23rd, Pineville police officers and members of the Bell County Coroner's Office responded to a home in Pineville, Kentucky, located approximately 125 miles south of Lexington.

Inside, they found 41-year-old April Barlow Celio, a married mother of three, deceased.

Responding officers quickly determined Celio's death to be a homicide.

While performing an autopsy, the state medical examiner's office revealed Celio had been pregnant at the time of her death, but her unborn child had been forcibly removed from her womb.

Police, Bell County sheriff's deputies, and Kentucky State Police returned to Celio's residence, where they discovered what officials believe to be fetal remains.

Two days after Celio was found dead, on September 25th, two arrest warrants for first-degree robbery and kidnapping were issued by a Bell County District Court judge for 41-year-old Damarcus Kenneth Johnson Wright.

On September 30th, two more warrants were issued for Johnson Wright's arrest on suspicion of murder and tampering with physical evidence.

Okay.

Bell County wins.

You go search Bell County and think, "Where would be a good place to have people go?"

Mm-hmm.

Right?

Can't he, Ryan, can he do this?

I have 100% confidence he can do this.

So you go to Bell County and you say, "Okay, well where would be a good place to have people go?"

It goes a little something like this.

Sydney Sailor Farr grew up in Bell County, Kentucky, in the southeastern corner of the state near Virginia and Tennessee borders.

In her memoir, My Appalachia, Farr describes numerous beliefs that surrounded everyday life in the mountains.

Some concerned health, pregnancy, household behavior, and some concerned death.

Where'd you grow up?

I grew up in Bell County.

You know where that is?

Sorry, I

don't...

You don't know where Bell County is? I thought everybody knew where Bell County was.

I know where Pike by looking at a map.

Yeah.

I remember a lot of those 13th region gates, football and basketball, both.

We'd often drive up to Harlan or back home to Bell County or Harlan.

That, that, that 13th region still rocks.

Yeah, it sure does.

Proposals are due October 5th.

The Kentucky Court of Justice, on behalf of the Bell County Project Development Board, is seeking proposals from architecture and engineering firms for design services on the Farmer-Helton Judicial Center renovation project.

The facility houses courtrooms and judicial offices for the Bell County Circuit and district courts, as well as the office and records for the Bell County Circuit Court Clerk.

The estimated project budget is $20.9 million.

Submittals are due October 15th.

Uh, I don't know if I'll get into all of those today, but, um, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll probably get into a couple of them for sure.

In my travels, I have met folks in, in Bell County who have seen bears roam into town right next to the Kentucky Fried Chicken.

I guess that smell just got to them, right? But they were right in the Kentucky Fried Chicken parking lot on the edge of town in Middlesboro, Kentucky, as they walk over from the Cumberland Gap National Park.

Now, I love Cumberland Gap National Park, and occasionally, because of my job, I will go down to Middlesboro.