Bill Sparkman Fought Cancer and Won. Now He Has Been Murdered for Unknown Reason

In 1993, William E. Sparkman Jr. moved to Laurel County in Kentucky and Shortly after arriving, he became a volunteer at Johnson Elementary. Eventually he was offered a position as an instructional assistant, which he accepted.

"For the nine years I did it, I loved it," he said. "But there were some instructional assistants going back to get their degree to teach."

In 2004, Sparkman discovered Utah-based Western Governor's University, an online college that would enable him to study from home. Bill Sparkman earned his teaching degree in February of this year. He went back to school at the age of 47, after surviving cancer.

Then he had an ingrown toenail removed in September 2007, he asked his doctor a cyst he had developed on the side of his neck.

"I'd had a cyst removed on the back of my neck before," he said. "I didn't think anything about this one either."

But when Sparkman showed his doctor the growth, he was concerned.

"As soon as he saw it, I went to the hospital," Sparkman said. Sparkman underwent testing for two days and then waited 45 days to get the results. He relied on teaching to keep him distracted from his worry.

"Being at school was really good," he said. "When I was out teaching it wasn't in my mind."

When the results came in, Sparkman was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, cancer of the lymphatic system. It was in Stage 3. He was prescribed six sessions of chemotherapy, which started in mid-November and would continue for several months. All the while, he continued student teaching.

"It never affected me," he said of the chemo. "I never had any sickness. I would get tired for a couple days after a treatment and, of course, the hair."

Bill Sparkman was a single parent to son Josh. He needed to supplement his income. Having to scrape together extra bucks working multiple jobs to supplement meager to nonexistent retirement income, he took on a part-time position with the U.S. Census Bureau.

At the age of 51, on Sept.12^th, Sparkman was found murdered in a remote patch near a small family cemetery close to Daniel Boone National Forest in Clay County Kentucky, about 18 miles south of the county seat of Manchester.

Jerry Weaver of Fairfield, Ohio, found Bill's body hanging from a tree. Weaver said the body was about 50 yards from a 2003 Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck. He said Sparkman's clothes were in the bed of the truck.

"His tailgate was down," Weaver said. "I thought he could have been killed somewhere else and brought there and hanged up for display, or they actually could have killed him right there. It was a bad, bad scene.

The only thing he had on was a pair of socks. Someone had duct-taped his hands, his wrists. He had duct tape over his eyes, and they gagged him with a red rag. They even had duct tape around his neck. They had like his identification tag on his neck. They had it duct-taped to the side of his neck, on the right side, almost on his right shoulder."

Weaver said he couldn't tell if the tag was a Census Bureau I.D. He said he didn't get close enough to read it. The word "Fed" scrawled across his chest.

As of now, people a just guessing on why he was killed.

"This case has many facets," Kentucky State Patrol Trooper Don Trosper said. "To investigate cases, you have to rule out different scenarios. We are not able to rule out many scenarios at this time, and that's what makes this a difficult case."

The FBI is intensely investigating if his death is an act of violence against the federal government because of the census or if it had to do with meth labs and hidden marijuana fields.

Family Resource Director Gilbert Accairdo said that he had spoken to Sparkman several times about being careful on his home visits.

Why was Sparkman in that remote part of the national park is something police are still investigating?

"They have no idea either on what was going on with this situation, why he would have been in that area," Trooper Trosper said.