Man seeks answers after girlfriend is found dead in Winchester motel room

IRVINE, Ky. (FOX 56) — Kaylieb Thompson said it was seven years of love—in every sense of the word—between him and his girlfriend, Reacheal Dawson.

He even planned to propose to her on July 2, but their time together would come to an abrupt end just days before he was about to get down on one knee.

“This person right here. That was — that’s who loved me. That’s who accepted me. And that’s who wanted to build a life with me. And I don’t have that anymore. I have a piece of paper and ashes soon,” Thompson said while holding a picture of his girlfriend.

On Thursday, June 26, Thompson said he had not heard from Dawson for a few hours and couldn’t get in touch with her, which was unusual.

When his son called him, saying “Ree-Ree,” as Thompson referred to her, was not home, he knew something was wrong.

“I went outside, and I screamed for her. I screamed until some of our furthest neighbors around our one-lane road heard because I couldn’t stop. I just kept screaming for her. I just kept calling her phone. She wasn’t answering,” he told FOX 56.

Her family reported her missing shortly after midnight on June 27.

Dawson’s sister pinged her phone’s location, which showed that she was at the Red Roof Inn on Interstate Drive in Winchester.

When first responders got there, they found Dawson dead in one of the rooms inside. According to authorities, that room was rented out by Brian Epperson.

He was arrested on June 27 and later charged with murder in connection with another death — the May 31 overdose of 32-year-old Kristen Morris, who was found dead inside a Powell County Airbnb.

Investigators said she had an extremely high level of methamphetamine in her system.

Epperson allegedly admitted to filling capsules with methamphetamine. Police said they found such capsules at both the Powell County Airbnb and the Winchester motel.

Thompson said Dawson never did drugs. Now, he is left wondering how and why this could’ve happened to her.

“This was going to be my wife. This was going to be the mother of my children. And now everything’s gone. Why am I left with that?” he asked.

Epperson has not been charged with Dawson’s murder, but police said he is a prime suspect. They are still waiting on a toxicology report.