Additional Details in the Mississippi Murder Case Allegedly Involving Former Locals

TIPPAH CO., Miss. (EYT) – Caitlin Spence has been extradited to Mississippi and was booked into the Tippah County Jail on Monday, December 4, following her arrest on capital murder charges in the Magnolia State.

(Photo above – Kirby Carpenter; Inset: Mugshots of Caitlin Spence, Jeffrey Spence, and Karen Spence.)

Caitlin Spence was wanted for the murder of Kirby Carpenter, of Tippah County, Mississippi. She was apprehended by the US Marshals at a home on the 500 block of Belgiumtown Road in Brookville, Pa., on November 30 at 1:49 p.m. The owners of the home where she was apprehended are Spence’s relatives.

Also wanted for Carpenter’s murder were Spence’s parents, Jeffrey Dean Spence and Karen Elizabeth Spence, who were apprehended by US Marshals in Smyth County, Virginia. Court records show they have waived their extradition rights in the Old Dominion. It is unclear when they will be transported to Mississippi to face charges.

Case Background

Kirby Carpenter, a successful serial entrepreneur and dealer of precious metals, was reported dead on December 2, 2022. Authorities believe Carpenter was murdered with a shotgun or a gun that shoots shotgun-style shells on November 30, after he had returned home from grocery shopping.

Carpenter was in a relationship with Caitlin Spence, according to his family. The couple lived together in the Dry Creek Community outside Booneville, Mississippi, with their infant daughter who was born the July prior to Carpenter’s murder. The home sits on 10 acres of property and is next to 127 acres of property owned by Carpenter.

According to sources close to the family, Jeffrey and Karen Spence, Caitlin Spence’s parents, went to visit Carpenter and Spence “for a couple of weeks” following the birth of the child. They ended up staying four months. Caitlin Spence told Carpenter’s family that her parents left Mississippi and went to Virginia the night before Carpenter was killed.

Jeffrey and Karen Spence returned to Mississippi on December 3rd, the day after Carpenter’s body was discovered by Caitlin Spence behind his garage.

The following day, Carpenter’s mother, Mattie Jane Jones, discovered that the locks to the home and the codes to the safes that Carpenter had inside his home—safes used to store precious metals, documents, and guns—had been changed.

“Fearing” that the Spences would abscond with Carpenter’s valuables, which, they say, now belonged to his children, Jones was appointed as administratrix of Kirby Carpenter’s estate.

“We started an immediate inventory to make sure they couldn’t take things out of the home,” said Kaysie Barnes, sister of Kirby Carpenter. “Looking back on it, we should have kicked them out. But in our minds, we were thinking this is the baby’s home. We were so deep in our grief, we just weren’t thinking. We had suspicions, but we didn’t think they’d killed him.”

According to Barnes, it is unknown if any valuables were removed from the home before the inventory.

All three Spences and the baby left Mississippi and traveled back to Virginia on December 20, three days after Carpenter’s funeral, Barnes said.

As the administratrix of the estate, Jones set up child support payments for Carpenter’s baby, which they sent by check to a home in Saltville, Virginia, an address that was given to them by Caitlin Spence. After a couple of months, Carpenter’s family said that Caitlin Spence stopped communicating with them.

After not being able to check on the baby, Barnes said she made a call to law enforcement in Virginia to do a welfare check. When law enforcement arrived, according to Barnes, the house at the address was found to have burned to the ground. The only thing left standing was the mailbox.

It is unknown what evidence the Tippah County Sheriff’s Department has that established the probable cause for the arrests of Caitlin, Jeffrey, and Karen Spence. An affidavit of probable cause has not yet been released to the public.