Dateline Revisits Kirby Carpenter Murder and His Girlfriend's Testimony

She Found Her Boyfriend and Later Testified

Caitlin Spence found her boyfriend, Kirby Carpenter, dead outside his Mississippi home. She later testified against her own father at two trials, and the second jury convicted Jeffrey Spence of first-degree murder.

The March 2026 conviction and life sentence are being revisited following NBC’s October 16 Dateline episode, The Betrayal of Kirby Carpenter. The case concerns Carpenter’s November 2022 killing in Tippah County, rather than a newly announced homicide or verdict.

Carpenter, 36, operated Mississippi Gold, Silver, and Coin Exchange. He and Caitlin had an infant daughter, and her parents had stayed with them after the child’s birth, according to court coverage.

The case ultimately involved different outcomes for three members of Caitlin’s family. Her father was convicted after a retrial, while Caitlin and her mother, Karen Spence, resolved separate accessory charges through plea agreements.

A Bag of Valuables Was Missing

Investigators placed Carpenter’s killing on November 30, 2022, after he returned from grocery shopping. Caitlin called 911 two days later, on December 2, to report finding his body near an outdoor storage area at the property.

Carpenter was known to carry substantial amounts of cash and precious metals. Although money remained with him when he was found, a bag he used for valuables and documents was missing, according to the trial reporting.

Other details drew investigators’ attention to people familiar with the property. Court TV reported that exterior security cameras had been disabled and that Jeffrey knew where Carpenter kept a spare key.

Carpenter’s mother also reported seeing silver coins in Jeffrey’s vehicle after the killing, according to Court TV. The investigation continued for almost a year before another witness supplied information about what Caitlin had said.

A former employee of Carpenter’s told detectives in November 2023 that Caitlin had confided her father’s involvement to him. Caitlin and her parents were arrested later that month, according to the case accounts reviewed by People.

A Plea Agreement Required Her Testimony

Caitlin pleaded guilty in April 2025 to being an accessory after the fact to murder. Her agreement required truthful testimony against her parents, and she took the stand at both of her father’s trials.

She testified that Jeffrey had admitted involvement after she discovered Carpenter’s body. Her testimony described conversations in which he acknowledged returning to Mississippi on the day of the killing despite an earlier account that he had left for Virginia.

Prosecutors argued that money motivated the killing. They presented Carpenter’s missing valuables and the family’s access to his property as part of that account.

The defense challenged Caitlin’s testimony and sought to portray Carpenter as abusive and involved in drug dealing. Those descriptions were defense claims raised during the contested trial, rather than findings that justified the killing.

The first jury could not agree on a verdict in September 2025. It reported a six-to-six division, and the judge declared a mistrial, requiring prosecutors to present the case to another jury.

The Retrial Produced a Life Sentence

The second jury convicted Jeffrey of first-degree murder in March 2026. It acquitted him of capital murder and manslaughter, and Judge John Kelly Luther imposed the mandatory life sentence immediately after the verdict.

Karen’s separate case ended with an Alford plea to accessory after the fact to grand larceny. Under that plea, she did not admit the underlying act but accepted that prosecutors had sufficient evidence for a conviction.

Court-document reporting by exploreJefferson specified that her 10-year prison sentence was fully suspended, with five years of unsupervised probation. People reported that Caitlin also received a suspended sentence and supervised probation after her father’s conviction.

Those accessory outcomes differ from Jeffrey’s murder conviction and life imprisonment. The October Dateline broadcast revisits the discovery, family testimony and two trials that produced those separate judgments.

References: Jeffrey Spence convicted of murdering daughter’s boyfriend | MS v. Jeffrey Spence: Plotting Parents Murder Trial | Karen Spence Pleads Guilty to Accessory in Carpenter Case, Gets Suspended Sentence | Kirby Carpenter’s Girlfriend Discovered His Dead Body in 2022. Then, She Helped Convict Her Own Father of His Murder

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