SHEPHERDSVILLE, KY (WAVE) - Reams of phone calls poured in to Shepherdsville Police Department with just as many different descriptions of what was going on at a rest stop off Interstate 65, near mile marker 113, on June 20, 2015.
“The calls initially came in as a fight, an auto accident, a stabbing, a person injured.” Shepherdsville Police Sergeant Ken Bernardi said, “There were no cameras in the rest area that caught anything.”
Piece-by-piece police are putting together the answers to so many puzzling questions about what led to the death of Aaron Michael Jerrell, 45, from Tuscumbia, Alabama, found dead on the side of the road.
The area is the very first Kentucky rest stop you come to when traveling out of Indiana.
“There's a lot of traffic that runs from Louisville to Elizabethtown and from Louisville to Bowling Green on a daily basis,” Bernardi said.
The rest stop has never had more than a few problems of vandalism or an occasional theft. The death of Jerrell now has officer's investigating the rest area's first and only murder.
Jerrell had arrived at the rest stop in a dark colored F-150 pick-up truck along with a boxed trailer.
“The vehicle was at the end of the merge ramp from the rest area to I-65 South,” Bernardi said.
Nicole Skyberg, 26, of California, was also at the scene of the crime that afternoon. She was initially released after questioning that day.
“She is from California but I have no idea where Mr. Jerrell encountered her,” Bernardi said, speaking of Skyberg. “She was a passenger in his vehicle.”
Skyberg is now in the Bullitt County Detention Center after being questioned again, then detained four days after Jerrell was found dead on the side of the road.
She is charged with murder and is being held on a $500,000 full cash bound.
Jerrell's criminal past as a registered sex offender had been pointed out by many media outlets, however Bernardi said, “He is looked at as a victim pure and simple.”
“After meeting with the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office an arrest warrant was obtained. A weapon was recovered at the scene. It was a folding knife,” Bernardi said.
The knife is believed to be the weapon that caused the fatal wound in Jerrell's death, a cut to his arm.
“The brachial artery is fairly easy to get to when the arm is turned certain ways. It doesn't take long to bleed to death from a sliced artery,” Bernardi said.
Although police have a body, a weapon and a suspect, they are asking the public for help to put the final pieces of the events that lead to Aaron Jerrell's death together to make a complete and clear picture.
Bernardi said, “If anyone was in that area either on I-65 southbound or in the rest area at the time of the incident we'd really like you to call us. I have no idea if anyone videoed it and has either not brought it forward or not brought it forward yet.”
Skyberg is scheduled to appear back in court for a probable cause hearing June 30.
If you have any information on this case Shepherdsville police ask you to call (502) 921-1000 or the anonymous tip line 502-215-1288.
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