The man convicted in a high-profile murder case in Trigg County has died of natural causes at a Louisville hospital.
Kevin Dunlap, 51, was convicted of murdering three children and the attempted murder and rape of their mother in 2008. According to radio station WKDZ, Dunlap died Sunday. He was awaiting execution on death row at the Kentucky State Penitentiary but was transported from the prison to UofL Hospital before he died.
Dunlap, a former soldier from Hopkinsville, was originally sentenced to six death penalties, three life sentences and 55 years in prison by Judge C.A. “Woody” Woodall III following a 2010 trial in Livingston County. The trial was moved to Smithland because of pretrial publicity.
Dunlap was convicted of killing Ethan Frensley, 5; Kortney Frensley, 14, and Kayla Williams, 17. Their mother, Kristy Frensley, survived. Dunlap stabbed the three children on Oct. 15, 2008, before raping their mother and then stabbing her. Believing the mother to be dead, he set fire to the family’s home in the Roaring Springs area and left the scene.
Dunlap was accused of killing the three children when they returned home after school. Frensley was able to get out of the house and into the home’s swimming pool after being stabbed. Her story, as well as Dunlap’s, has been the subject of several TV crime shows.
Dunlap was arrested three days after the crimes. In February 2010, Dunlap was convicted of murder, rape, attempted murder, arson, kidnapping with victim death, kidnapping with serious physical injury, burglary and tampering with physical evidence.
In the past decade, Dunlap and his attorneys had been seeking an evidentiary hearing regarding his mental capacities at the time of the murders.
(Photo: Kevin Dunlap during his trial in Livingston County in 2010, courtesy of Kentucky Today)
By Kentucky Today
