BUTLER, Ky. —

The family of Tara Turner, whose body was found in Snag Creek in 2016, joined police at a press conference Tuesday to bring new light to the case.

Turner was reported missing on Jan. 31, 2016, and her body was found 28 days later in the water near the boat dock.

The coroner did not determine a cause of death. The report said there were no obvious wounds and there were no opioids found in the blood toxicology screening.

The case has been listed as a death investigation while police continue to follow leads.

Kentucky State Trooper David Jones said detectives were following up on leads as recent as last week.

"This is still an open investigation," Jones said. "We're asking for any information leading to an arrest and a conviction."

Jessica Turner-Rapier, Tara's oldest sister, spoke at the press conference Tuesday also asking anyone with information to come forward.

"It doesn't matter how small you think it is, it could be important," Turner-Rapier said. "We'll continue doing this each and every year until justice is served for Tara."

Turner-Rapier said her sister was bubbly and carefree but first and foremost, she was a mother.

"She went missing on my dad's birthday and we knew she wouldn't just up and leave," Turner-Rapier said. "Myself and my family discuss what could've happened...we appreciate any information sent to us on Facebook, but the police need that information."

Family members mentioned potential suspects they thought could be involved in Tara's death however police did not confirm any of those leads on Tuesday.

"She was last seen in Campbell County on Route 10," Jones said.

Family members described Tara as loved by everyone, someone who could be best friends with anyone.

(Watch the full press conference in the video player below.)

"Tara lived in Pendleton County all her life. She was last seen in Campbell County supposedly meeting someone but to my knowledge, she was going towards Augusta," Turner-Rapier said.

Tara was found in the water exactly 28 days after she was reported missing, however, officials said she did not drown.

"You don't go swimming with your boots and coat on but your glasses are laying on the bank," her sister said.

The family is offering a $30,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Turner-Rapier said the money has been collected by family and friends over the last seven years.

"We hold a memorial every year on Feb. 28," Turner-Rapier said.

Tara has three living children ages 19, 18 and 16. Another child died a few days after he was born several years ago.

Tara's daughters, Billie and Olivia spoke at the press conference this afternoon.

"This year me and my older brother are graduating. My little sister is doing phenomenally. My brother is having a baby soon, she should be here to see that. We hope she's proud of us," Billie said.

The family has created a Facebook page to raise awareness about the case.

"These people lost a mother, daughter and friend. They deserve closure and we pray for it. They're not going to stop," Tara's cousin, April Owens said.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Kentucky State Police Post 6 at 859-428-8212.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Ky. — The family of Gary Wayne Bressler Sr. said they are not sure what exactly happened in the moments before he died early Wednesday morning, fearing they might never learn the truth. They say Bressler was the man killed in a trooper-involved shooting.

Kentucky State Police have not identified the person they are calling a "suspect." While the agency investigates the incident in Grant County, Bressler’s cousin said he worries about the integrity of a KSP investigation into its own troopers.

"Maybe things can get lost or missing," Edward Howell said. “Maybe they won’t try to prosecute one of their own. I just think it needs to be in somebody else’s hands on the investigation…I’m very upset about that. That’s how things get swept under the rug.”

Howell lives in Arkansas and has been communicating with Bressler’s wife, Heather, and other family members who still live in Kentucky. According to Howell, Bressler's wife was outside with three of the couple's kids as KSP troopers shot and killed her husband on the front lawn.

“She looked out the window as Gary was walking around the car and they just started shooting,” said Howell, who is speaking on behalf of the family. “They shot him three times.”

According to a KSP spokesperson, troopers from Post 6 were responding to a 911 call on Chipman Ridge Road in Williamstown early Wednesday morning when a trooper-involved shooting around 1:45 left one man dead.

Bressler’s family says he was the person who called 911. They think he might have been suffering a mental health crisis and was looking for help. Bressler's wife tells us he was holding a sword. Based on her account, troopers got out of their vehicle and asked him to drop the sword once, then immediately started firing.

WCPO has asked KSP multiple times how many troopers initially responded, whether that “suspect” was armed and how many troopers fired their service weapons. KSP is not releasing further details until “vital witnesses have been interviewed and pertinent facts gathered,” according to a statement.

In Kentucky, the state police have jurisdiction to investigate any officer-involved shootings, including their own. The KSP Critical Incident Response Team responded to the scene in Grant County and is now handling the investigation.

The practice of law enforcement agencies investigating officer-involved shootings committed by their own personnel is becoming rare. In 2020, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine instructed the Ohio State Highway Patrol to bring in outside, independent investigators for all trooper-involved shootings. The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office has a similar policy. In Ohio, these kinds of investigations are often turned over to the Attorney General’s office and his Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

This is not a practice required by Ohio law, however. The Cincinnati Police Department firearms discharge policy does not call for any outside investigatory involvement for shots fired at individuals.

“We are committed to full and fair investigations of every officer-involved shooting, including those involving the Kentucky State Police,” Kerry Harvey, Kentucky’s Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary said in a statement. “ We will always commit appropriate resources to see that a thorough, objective investigation is done in each and every case. We are satisfied that at present we have the right resources to continue to fulfill our commitment to thoroughly and fairly investigate every case.”

KSP is an agency within the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet. A cabinet spokesperson further defended this practice by explaining that “KSP has vast knowledge and experience, as well as additional technology and resources not readily available to all local law enforcement, that further assist with these investigations.”

Howell was surprised to find out this was the standard procedure in Kentucky.

“I thought that was a little weird that an outside agency doesn’t do the investigation, [that] it’s through their own department,” he said.

According to a report from The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that covers the criminal justice system, KSP troopers shot and killed at least 41 people from 2015 through 2020. The report, which analyzed data compiled by the Washington Post in partnership with the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, also showed KSP killed more people in rural communities than any department nationwide and no trooper was prosecuted for involvement in any of those 41 deaths.

For Howell, another major red flag is the lack of body camera footage. Kentucky State Police does not currently equip troopers with body cameras, although plans to do so are in the works.

“My administration believes in transparency,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said in a statement to WCPO 9 News. “I believe that body cameras can provide protection to law enforcement officers by documenting exactly what happened during a situation.”

Beshear and KSP Commissioner Phillip Burnett Jr. said they are working with the Office of the State Budget Director to request pay increases and funds for body cameras in the upcoming fiscal year.

“Recording devices increase officer safety, while strengthening transparency when responding to calls for services,” Commissioner Burnett said in a statement.

Ohio and Indiana have both recently started to equip state police personnel with body cameras under certain circumstances, but plans for KSP to get body cameras in the future won’t help Bressler’s family get answers today. Howell says he’s remembering his cousin as a great father and loving member of the family.

“He was a good guy, always cracking jokes,” Howell said. “An awesome dad to his kids. Him and his wife had been married for 15 years or better. He was just a real good guy, always working.”

WARSAW, Ky. — The driver involved in a police pursuit that ended in a fatal crash in Gallatin County now faces a slew of other charges, including manslaughter.

According to Kentucky State Police, a Warsaw Police officer attempted to stop a vehicle on U.S. 42 for speeding just before 1:30 a.m. Sunday. The vehicle did not stop, leading police on a chase that ended when the vehicle collided with a concrete wall.

The driver, 31-year-old Josh Hodges of Florence, was transported to an area hospital for medical care, as was a 34-year-old passenger in his vehicle. Both were wearing seat belts at the time of the crash.

A third passenger, identified as 54-year-old Shanda Withrow of Hamilton, Ohio, was not wearing a seat belt and died in the crash, police said.

Kentucky State Police said Hodges has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault and first-degree criminal mischief. Hodges had previously been charged with fleeing or evading police and multiple traffic offenses by the Warsaw Police Department.

Hodges is currently lodged at Louisville Metro Corrections. The Kentucky State Police Post 5 reconstruction team is continuing their investigation.

Police shot a man to death in Covington on June 18 and released details about the confrontation hours later. Information about the Wednesday shooting death of a suspect wanted by U.S. Marshals took a full day to reach the public.

Kentucky State Police officers are investigating both incidents, as they do with most shootings involving police in the state of Kentucky. So why does the time between official statements vary so much?

The short answer, according to former University of Cincinnati police chief Gene Ferrara, is that police need time to verify what they’ve found before they start sharing information with the public or press.

“There's just so much about the investigation that really should be guarded in order to maintain the veracity of the investigation,” Ferrara said.

Ferrara, who spent 50 years in law enforcement, said many things complicate basic fact-finding: The number of witnesses, officers and agencies involved; the evidence at the scene; and the physical area in which a shooting occurs.

More police departments means more complication and more internal bureaucracy. The involvement of federal agencies such as the U.S. Marshals Service increases the workload even more.

“The smaller the investigation to uncover everything is, the quicker it can be done,” Ferrara said.

And if facts don’t line up right away at the scene, police need time to undertake deeper investigations, seek more interviews and gain a clear idea about what happened before they arrived.

“The more the statements of witnesses agree, then the less I have to go out to others,” according to Ferrara.

He compares the post-shooting investigation to elephant-watching. Two people looking at opposite ends of an elephant might describe completely different animals — it’s investigators’ job to take these disparate facts and figure out how they fit together.

Sometimes, seeing the whole elephant is easy. Sometimes it’s not.

Ferrara said disparities in the amount of time police take to release a statement about a shooting are not innately reason for concern.

FLORENCE, Ky. — Kentucky State Police are investigating law enforcement officers' fatal shooting of a man in Florence, Kentucky, on June 30.

According to a news release, U.S. Marshals attempted to execute multiple arrest warrants on a suspect located inside a home on Garden Drive.

The subject fired his weapon at the Marshals and continued to brandish a firearm throughout their brief standoff.

Law enforcement — the release does not specify which entity they worked for — shot the man, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. No officers were harmed during the altercation.

Officials have not publicized the man's name or the crimes of which he was suspect.