The man shot to death in Brown County over the weekend has been identified, on the same day that two people arrested in connection with his murder appeared in court.
Coroner Earl Piper confirmed this afternoon that the victim from the Feb. 6 shooting on Hicks Road was 38-year-old Patrick Harper from Kentucky and that the manner of his death was a homicide.
Harper died from a gunshot wound to the head. Piper said he was a shot a total of four times: three times in the head and once in the back.
Harper’s body was discovered Feb. 9 wrapped in plastic at the home where Brown County resident Michael Hazelgrove lived on Hicks Road. Piper confirmed that Harper died on Feb. 6.
Hazelgrove, 54, of Brown County, and Alicia Bustle, 36, of Stanford, Kentucky, were booked into the Brown County jail on Feb. 8 on preliminary charges related to the homicide. They both were initially being held on no bond, but during an initial hearing this afternoon, Hazelgrove’s bond was adjusted to $100,000.
Judge Mary Wertz told Hazelgrove that the prosecutor’s office had found probable cause to charge him with felony-level assisting a criminal and obstruction of justice.
Wertz ordered Bustle to remain in jail on no bond. She told Bustle that the prosecution had found probable cause so far to charge her with murder.
Prosecutor Ted Adams requested a 72-hour recess to give him time to formally press charges against them both. The initial hearings for both Hazelgrove and Bustle were recessed until Friday, Feb. 12 at 11 a.m. Then, both will be advised of their formal charges.
Public defender Courtney Allen was appointed to represent Hazelgrove. Public defender Greg Bowes will represent Bustle.
Hazelgrove and Bustle appeared separately at their hearings via video from the Brown County jail.
Through tears, when asked if she could afford an attorney, Bustle told Wertz she was homeless and had not had a job for years, and was receiving assistance from family.
Bustle was found and arrested on Feb. 8 at a home a few miles down the road from Hazelgrove’s home.
Police had been called to the Hazelgrove home in the 7000 block of Hicks Road just after 11:30 a.m. Feb. 8. Sheriff Scott Southerland said that the department received a phone call asking that police go check the home because the caller heard that a person may have been killed there on Feb. 6.
Hazelgrove was at the house when deputies entered and discovered a man’s body wrapped in plastic in one of the three bedrooms, near the living room where Hazelgrove’s recliner was, Southerland said.
Police believe Hazelgrove had been staying in the home with the body since Saturday.
