BY RACHEL DOVE
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
PAINTSVILLE — A Johnson County man who narrowly survived a suicide attempt is behind bars after being charged with first-degree murder in the Aug. 11 shooting death of his 12-year-old daughter.
The mind-blowing tragedy left law enforcement, family, classmates and the community with way more questions than they have answers.
Stacy Collins, 47, of Van Lear, was taken into custody Aug. 30 by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department as he was being discharged from the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington. Collins had been hospitalized for more than two weeks since being found on strip mine property Aug. 11, clinging to life from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
The police investigation began when deputies received a call of a possible assault in the Van Lear community after Collins was discovered lying alongside a dirt road by a gas company employee. While speaking with Collins’ family, officers became aware that his 12-year-old daughter, Stacia Collins, had been in the company of her father and had not attended school at Porter Elementary Aug. 10 or 11, and had been reported missing by her mother.
The mother informed deputies that her estranged husband had asked to keep their daughter overnight and take her to school, which was the first day of the 2022-2023 school year in Johnson County. She said he sent her a text containing a photo of Stacia dressed and ready for school, and then she allegedly received a second message from her soon-to-be ex, asking her if she “wanted to speak with her daughter one last time.” Stacia’s mother kept trying to call the number back but received no response.
A search party quickly formed to comb the strip mine land for any signs of Stacia. Shortly thereafter, deputies received a report that a male and female riding on the strip had found a female body in the middle of a road that saw little traffic. That location was approximately 2 miles from where the father was found. The coroner was called to the scene and pronounced the daughter deceased, ruling the cause of death as a gunshot wound.
The father was first transported to the Paintsville Appalachian Regional Hospital and then transferred to Lexington for specialized care.
The funeral service for Stacia was a standing-room-only affair, as her fellow students and teachers came together to mourn the loss.
No date has been set for Collins’ preliminary hearing. The Johnson County Sheriff said his department plans to seek the harshest punishment possible, emphasizing there’s no possible explanation that could ever warrant a parent taking the life of their own child. When asked if the death penalty was a consideration in this case, the sheriff replied that it was “not off the table.”