On the morning of February 9, 2021, firefighters responding to a barn fire off Hutchinson Road in Bourbon County found a passenger car fully engulfed. After extinguishing the blaze, human remains inside the vehicle were recovered and later identified as 38-year-old Lexington resident Lazarus Romell Parker. The Bourbon County Coroner and detectives treated the scene as a homicide.

Detectives traced the violence back to a Dakota Street residence in Lexington. Investigators say Parker and another man, Cecil T. Russell, argued; Parker allegedly fired a warning shot while Russell was hiding in a bathroom. According to the investigation, Parker’s gun jammed, he was shot and killed inside the house, then his body was placed in a car and driven to the barn where the vehicle was set on fire to conceal evidence.

In March 2021, prosecutors charged 36-year-old Cecil T. Russell with murder and evidence tampering. Two others present that night, Autumn Owens and Martae Shanks, were also charged with complicity to abuse a corpse, complicity to arson, and drug trafficking. Does anyone have information about the Dakota Street residence or the people involved that could help explain what happened that night?