In the latest episode of Uniquely Kentucky, Amber Philpott dives into “The Bluegrass Conspiracy” with Sally Denton.
who has written a number of books, including, “The Bluegrass Conspiracy.” It is an inside story of power, greed, drugs, and murder and it blew the lid off of Lexington, Ky. when it was released.
Denton was a WKYT investigative reporter from about 1980-83 and who worked several reports on corruption in the Lexington police department.
Her book, “The Bluegrass Conspiracy” was released in 1989 to both raves and jeers. It is a detailed account of the events that both surrounded and lead up to former Lexington police officer Drew Thorton parachuting to his death with 150 pounds of cocaine.
The scandal reached far beyond the rolling hills of the Bluegrass and became one of Lexington’s and the country’s most intriguing stories.
It also includes the disappearance of Melanie Flynn. The Lexington woman went missing in 1977 after leaving work at the Kentucky High School Athletic Association.
“An attractive young lady, daughter of a prominent family. Her father had been on city council. He had been a state senator. She worked for a prominent public sports agency. Her older brother was a rising sports star, and all of a sudden, she’s gone,”
Her purse was found shortly after her disappearance on the Kentucky River in Jessamine County. But afte that the case went cold for years.
“Despite all of our best efforts, we never could come up with any conclusions,” Kurtz said. “It just went on for month after month and nothing, nothing.”
Last week, investigators received a tip from an elderly person in another state,
That person had new information about the location of her body given to him from a key figure in the investigation. It specifically mentioned a septic hole at Murphy’s Landing. Kentucky State Police said they received a similar tip from a different person.
It’s on the Kentucky River on U.S. 68 in Mercer County.
Lexington and state police took equipment to scan underground and took K-9s to the area. They’ve not found anything so far, but police are asking for tips and old photos of Murphy’s Landing.
You can send the photos to policepio@lexingtonpolice.ky.gov.
They also cleared sections out near a wooded area.
“We are out here for a reason. We are putting it out there that we are here, and we want the public to know we don’t forget cases like this,” Lexington Police Sgt. Donnell Gordon said.
The search is expected to continue for days.
Police are also encouraging anyone with tips to report them.
“We want people to know that we are still – it doesn’t matter how old the cases are – that we are still actively investigating all of our cases and any tip that comes in we really appreciate it because we need the community’s help,” said Sgt. Gordon.
“We will exhaust all of our leads again, and hopefully we can come up with something that will help the family out.”
In the latest episode of Uniquely Kentucky, Denton is asked if she thinks there will ever be answers in the Flynn case.
“I think if there could be some answers and some justice that it would go a long way towards helping everybody heal from the results of this,” said Denton. “I mean Melanie is hardly the only victim in this situation.”
You can listen to the full podcast below, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.