Mother charged with son’s death

The lifeless body of a ten-year-old Breathitt County boy was located on August 12, more than twenty miles from his home, and his mother has been charged with his death.

Felicia Ann (Spicer) Gross, 33 of Panbowl Branch, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with one count of manslaughter in the second degree, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and falsely reporting an incident connected to the disappearance and death of Jayden Spicer.

According to reports, Spicer’s body was located in a plastic tote in a make-shift grave in a heavily wooded area just off Canoe Road near Joe Little Fork after the mother led investigators to the site following hours of police work over the previous week and an intense interview on August 12.

During the interview, Gross told detectives that she gave Spicer an unspecified sleeping medication, and he experienced a medical emergency that caused his death.  No date was given for Spicer’s death.  Gross also told investigators that she coached her children on what to say if questioned by the police.  She confessed that she had taken the body to Canoe and buried it.  Officials found the remains there on Tuesday.   

The discovery closed a massive seven-day search that involved helicopters, more than fifteen drones, twenty dogs, sonar equipment, and hundreds of trained volunteer searchers who combed the area where Spicer was reported missing.

Trooper Matt Gayheart, Public Information Officer for Post 13, said during a brief seven-minute press conference following Felicia Gross’s arrest on Tuesday night that although the mother had been charged, the investigation was still in its “early stages.”  He cautioned news media outlets that there was more information in the case, but that the “specific details cannot be released at this time.”

 “It is our top priority to protect the integrity of this investigation and seek justice for Jayden,” Gayheart told those gathered at Post 13 in Hazard. 

Gross currently faces up to ten years in prison if convicted, but additional charges could be added or upgraded pending the continuing investigation.  One official said that other defendants could also be added to the case if warranted.

The Search

Jayden Spicer was reported missing by his mother at 9:23 a.m. on Wednesday, August 6, after she walked to a neighbor’s home and called 911 in Hazard.  Felicia Gross reported that she and Spicer’s stepfather, Joshua N. Gross, 41, of Panbowl Branch, could not find the former Highland-Turner student when they woke shortly after 9:00 a.m.

The couple reported that they believed he had run away during the night, sometime after they all went to bed shortly after 9:00 p.m.

Law enforcement and search and rescue units were called to the trailer home at 677 Panbowl Branch Road, less than a mile from the city limits of Jackson.

Search crews made a quick sweep of the area and withdrew to prepare their plan and to preserve any scent trails that the boy may have left.

The Kentucky State Police Helicopter made numerous passes over the area using visual, lidar, and other electronic surveillance tools to look for the missing juvenile.  Rescue crews from the Jackson Fire Department and troopers from the Kentucky State Police Post 13 in Hazard entered the hills and conducted a sweep of the entire valley near the home and the mountainside opposite the home.

Crews found no sign of the missing ten-year-old.

“It just seems like this boy has vanished,” a searcher told The Jackson Times-Voice on August 8. 

Search dogs and “live-find” canines were brought to the Panbowl Branch and taken into the hills surrounding the family’s trailer home.

According to one report, the dogs followed several trails, but none that were believed to be connected to the missing child and could have been cross-contaminated. 

Officials reportedly retrieved clothing from the child’s former home to help clarify and isolate the scent target for the dogs.  Additional canine searches were conducted through the night of August 6 by numerous dog teams from several agencies.

Officials also brought in the Equusearch Midwest Search Team, whose specialized equipment allowed them to digitally map several ponds and the lake in the area with sonar.

 Their searches yielded no clues as to the disappearance.  Crews worked well into the night and called an end to the first day’s search at 3:00 a.m. on Thursday morning.

Added Resources

The Kentucky State Police, Jackson Fire Department, and the Breathitt County Sheriff’s Office were on the scene early Thursday morning to continue the search and worked through the day as the search area expanded to include neighboring properties.

Crews added trained professionals from multiple search teams and requested cadaver dogs to search the area.

Despite the best efforts and technology, crews who combed the hillsides, searched caves, old homes, ponds, barns, and abandoned homes found nothing.

By the evening of Friday, August 8, the investigation seemed to take a turn, and as investigators moved from a runaway case toward a criminal case.

“This is not adding up,” a sweaty searcher from the Wolfe County Search and Rescue Team said on the evening of the third day of the search.  “With all these resources and manpower, we would have found something if it was here.”

Crews from Texas, West Virginia, Ohio, and Tennessee joined the Jackson Fire Department, Quicksand Fire Department, and numerous other county agencies from across the state in the search.

The search continued over the next four days as police shifted their efforts to other locations in the county, as leads in the Panbowl area failed to find the missing boy.

New to The Home

According to family sources, Jayden Spicer was the son of Felicia A. Spicer and a man she told officials now lives in Kansas.  For much of his early life, he lived with his great-grandmother, Shirley Faye (Molands) Johnson, on Mill Creek at Canoe.  Johnson passed away on May 20, 2025, after a battle with cancer.

Jayden was returned to his mother, Felicia Gross, following Johnson's death.  He had also spent some time with aunts, according to one source.

Gross told search crews that Spicer had lived with her on Panbowl Branch for a month and a half, but she was not able to provide a photo of him to searchers.  Gross could only provide one blanket that Spicer had used so that canine units could have a scent to track.  She said that he did not have a pillow, which is usually a good source for a traceable scent.   

Felicia Gross told investigators that she had “a difficult time controlling” him and that he had run away multiple times during the short period that he was at her home. 

There were few clues as to the whereabouts of Spicer for more than six days, but investigators planned an interview for the seventh day.

Jayden Located

As the investigation entered its seventh day, Kentucky State Police detectives organized an interview with Jayden’s mother at the Jackson Police Department.  According to reports, Felicia Gross, after some time, agreed to lead officials to the location of his body.

Gross directed troopers and rescue crews to a small flat in a heavily wooded area on a hillside near the Sam Little Cemetery opposite the mouth of Joe Little Fork.  According to Breathitt County property records, the area is owned by the Arrowood and Spicer families.

Investigators entered the woods and searched the area indicated by Felicia Gross, but had difficulty locating the site during the initial walk through the area due to the heavy undergrowth.

Officials soon located the site and recovered the remains from a shallow grave.

Breathitt County Coroner Hargis Epperson and his staff were called to the scene, and ten-year-old Jayden Spicer was pronounced dead at 4:27 p.m. 

His body and additional evidence were recovered at the scene. 

Spicer’s remains were transported to the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office in Frankfort for a complete autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.

The Charges

Felicia Ann (Spicer) Gross was arrested by detectives and lodged in the Kentucky River Regional Jail at Hazard on Tuesday at 7:04 p.m.

She was charged with manslaughter in the second degree, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and falsely reporting an incident.

Under Kentucky law, second-degree manslaughter is a Class C felony, punishable by not less than five and no more than 10 years in prison.  The courts may impose a fine of not less than $1,000, but no more than $10,000.

Miranda S. King, Commonwealth’s Attorney for Breathitt County and the 39th Judicial District, said that the community was “devastated and collectively broken” over the death of the young boy.

She thanked investigators and rescue searchers for their tireless efforts.  “We are very thankful to be able to bring him out of the woods today,” she said in a statement.  She credited investigative work by detectives “who just wouldn’t quit” until they had found Jayden and solved the case.  

Tropper Gayheart thanked the many agencies and individuals who assisted the Kentucky State Police in their efforts.  “I would like to take a moment to thank the many different organizations that assisted in the search efforts for Jayden.  All of the volunteers who spent numerous hours and days trying to locate him,” he said.  “Thank you to every person who sent tips or even shared a social media post. Thank you for the many prayers that were prayed, and we ask that you continue to pray for a community that grieves during this tragic loss.”

Kentucky State Police Detective Nathan Roark is in charge of the investigation, which is still “considered active and ongoing,” and additional charges may be filed pending the outcome of the autopsy and further investigation.

The case will be presented to the Breathitt County Grand Jury.