Police investigate homicide of missing UK chef
January 22, 2014
By Will Wright | Assistant News Editor
Lexington police filed a murder warrant for a suspect in the case of Alex Johnson, a UK chef who has been missing since December, and have charged another man with complicity to kidnapping.
Though a body has not been found, the case is no longer a missing-person investigation, but is now a homicide investigation, Lexington police spokeswoman Sherelle Roberts told the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Steve O’Daniel, a private investigator hired by the Johnson family, said the police are looking for Robert Markham Taylor, 28 in connection with the murder of Johnson. O’Daniel does not know Taylor’s current location, but said he has been in Lexington for years.
“We’d love to find him, and I’m sure the police would love to find him,” O’Daniel said. “We do know (Taylor and Johnson) knew each other; we’re not exactly sure how.”
In addition to the warrant for Taylor’s arrest, Lexington police booked Timothy C. Ballard in the Fayette County jail on Monday, according to court documents.
Ballard, 42, was charged with complicity to kidnapping and tampering with physical evidence. He assisted in the restraint and transport of a victim and disposed of physical evidence, court documents say. The violation date listed is Dec. 20, 2013, the same date that Johnson was last heard from.
Ballard was arraigned Tuesday, pleaded not guilty and held on a $253,000 bond.
Johnson, who worked as a chef at the Hilary J. Boone Center on campus, is originally from Bowling Green and attended Transylvania University.
O’Daniel, who works investigations all over Kentucky, said he has become a family friend in the process of investigating.
“The family is just trying to get a handle on this,” he said. “This has been devastating.”
It is too early in the case to settle on a motive, O’Daniel said, and additional information on Taylor has to be held until the police are more certain of his whereabouts.
Gerald Marvel, general manager of the Boone Center, said on Tuesday that to his knowledge, none of Johnson’s coworkers expected or had suspicions of a kidnapping.
“He’s always been a very dependable employee,” Marvel said. “By all accounts he was a kind soul.”
Johnson, who had worked at the Boone Center since shortly after its reopening in 2008, was well liked by his coworkers, Marvel said.
Marvel is looking into grief counseling options for his employees, he said.
“(The investigation) has brought an unfortunate conclusion to this case and we’ll just have to work this process through the courts,” O’Daniel said. “The main thing we’re concerned on is finding Alex.”
