Entertainment

This True Crime Series Will Feature A New Side To A Very Gruesome Story

Investigation Discovery's Evil Lives Here series tackles some of the most gruesome crimes of recent history, and it's definitely not for the faint of heart. Its latest episode features the story of Kevin Dunlap, and the family he destroyed. It seems incredibly unlikely that anyone would walk free after facing the convictions he was handed, so is Kevin Dunlap still in jail?

According to a 2010 report by the Kentucky New Era, Dunlap had been sentenced to the death penalty, a judge had upheld the sentence and denied his attorneys' request for a retrial, and at that point he was awaiting execution on death row. This appears to be the latest specific update in his case, as a 2017 report from WKYT still listed Dunlap as a death row inmate. So it seems safe to assume that he is still being held at Kentucky State Penitentiary awaiting his fate.

Another New Era article outlines Dunlap's crimes. In 2010, he plead guilty to attacking Kristy Frensley, and to subsequently killing her three children, aged 17, 14, and 5 years old, back in 2008. Frensley herself survived the incident. According to the Associated Press, Dunlap lived down the street from the family prior to the crimes. Police alleged that he approached Frensley in her yard, forced her inside at gunpoint, and allegedly raped and stabbed her. When her children arrived home from school, the report continues, he killed them before setting their home on fire. He was arrested three days later.

Many who were present throughout the trial felt that Dunlap showed a serious lack of remorse, making the sentencing all the more understandable. Doug Williams, father of the 17-year-old who was killed, read a statement in court saying as much. "I still find it hard to understand how you can sit motionless, emotionless and void of reaction as the many photos and accounts of the aftermath of your crimes were described in great detail to this courtroom,” he said, according to the New Era piece linked above. "It’s clearly evident that you have no remorse for your crimes against my family and this society."

Dunlap's case is disturbing, but unfortunately, there are enough grisly, nonsensical crimes like it to make Evil Lives Here specializes in that kind of situation.

The TV Guide description for Dunlap's episode actually promises to explore the perspectives of two people who aren't even mentioned much in the coverage of the case. "Brooke Lehman was raised to believe Kevin Dunlap was her father," the description reads. "Her mother, Stephanie, kept the truth a secret, but neither of them realized that Kevin was keeping other, far more deadly secrets of his own."

A woman named Stephanie Lehman Dunlap is cited in another New Era piece about the trial, but only to say that she and Dunlap briefly filed for divorce, though they eventually dissolved the suit. The only children the two of them shared were mentioned in the same article, but were said to have been boys. This makes it a little unclear what angle Evil Lives Here will take when exploring the case, especially given that no lengthy trailers have been released ahead of time. But no matter what, the episode will turn a fresh eye on what had to have been a horrifying ordeal for everyone involved.