BREATHITT COUNTY, Ky. — One year ago today, a search that had captured the attention of people across Eastern Kentucky and beyond came to the devastating conclusion no one wanted.
On August 12, 2025, the body of 10-year-old Jayden Spicer was discovered in a wooded area of Breathitt County.
Jayden had been reported missing from his home on Panbowl Branch Road days earlier. What followed was an enormous search effort involving law enforcement officers, emergency personnel, volunteers and ordinary citizens who held onto hope that the little boy would be found alive.
Instead, investigators discovered Jayden's remains concealed inside a plastic tote and buried near Canoe Road.
The investigation eventually turned toward the people who were supposed to protect him.
Jayden's mother, Felicia Gross, and stepfather, Joshua Gross, were charged in connection with the case.
According to investigators, Gross acknowledged giving Jayden sleeping medication before what she described as a medical emergency. She has faced charges including manslaughter, abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence.
The criminal case remains pending, and the defendants are entitled to the presumption of innocence unless and until proven guilty in court.
But Jayden's death also raised a larger question:
Were Kentucky's laws strong enough to deal with the killing and severe abuse of children?
For State Senator Brandon Smith, who personally participated in the search for Jayden, the answer was no.
And from that tragedy came an effort to create Jayden's Law.
The Fight for Jayden's Law
During the 2026 Kentucky General Assembly, Smith introduced Senate Bill 138, legislation officially designated as Jayden's Law.
The legislation proposed sweeping changes to Kentucky law concerning crimes against children.
Among its provisions, the bill would have established child abuse homicide as a capital offense when abuse committed or knowingly permitted by a person having custody of a child resulted in that child's death.
But Jayden's Law went considerably further.
The legislation sought to increase penalties for multiple degrees of criminal abuse, expand certain protections that currently apply to younger children to all minors under the age of 18, strengthen manslaughter penalties when the victim is a child, and establish stronger consequences involving parental rights following serious abuse convictions.
In other words, this was not simply legislation written to punish someone after another Jayden died.
It was an attempt to strengthen Kentucky's laws for children throughout the Commonwealth.
The legislation advanced through the Senate Judiciary Committee and received its first and second readings.
On March 13, 2026, SB 138 was sent to the Senate Rules Committee.
And there it stopped.
Despite everything that had happened to Jayden, despite the attention his case received, despite lawmakers having an opportunity to strengthen Kentucky's child-protection laws, Jayden's Law was never brought before the full Kentucky Senate for a vote.
The 2026 legislative session ended.
Jayden's Law died with it.
Today, one year after Jayden's body was found, Senator Smith says the effort is not necessarily over. He has indicated that the legislation could return, potentially with additional provisions aimed at prevention and giving families struggling with addiction an avenue to seek help before children are harmed.
Meanwhile, the criminal case surrounding Jayden's death continues through the court system.
But regardless of what ultimately happens inside a courtroom, there is another unfinished piece of Jayden's story.
Kentucky still has an opportunity to make certain that the name Jayden Spicer means something more than the terrible circumstances surrounding the death of a 10-year-old boy.
His name can become part of a law designed to protect the next child.
The question is whether Kentucky lawmakers will finally allow that to happen.
Publisher's Commentary
By Joe Clark, Publisher — The Morehead Minute
Normally, this is where a journalist is expected to step aside and allow the facts to speak for themselves.
Not today.
I became involved with the effort to create Jayden's Law because what happened to this little boy bothered me deeply.
I reached out to Senator Brandon Smith because I believed Kentucky had a hole in its laws that needed to be closed. Senator Smith listened.
More importantly, he acted.
For that, I remain tremendously grateful.
Senator Smith didn't simply offer condolences, issue a statement and move on to the next subject. He helped search for Jayden. He carried Jayden's memory back to Frankfort. He worked on legislation. He testified for it. He pushed it through the process.
Whatever political disagreements anyone may have with Senator Brandon Smith on other issues, I will say this without hesitation:
He fought for Jayden.
And he fought for Kentucky's children.
Unfortunately, I cannot offer the same praise to the Kentucky Senate as an institution.
One year after Jayden Spicer's body was discovered, I remain angry about what happened in Frankfort.
Jayden's Law made it through committee.
It received two readings.
It reached Senate Rules.
And then the Kentucky Senate couldn't even give the legislation the dignity of a vote before the full chamber.
That is unacceptable.
We hear politicians constantly tell us that children are our future.
We hear speeches about protecting Kentucky families.
We hear campaign advertisements telling us how much candidates care about children.
Those words are easy.
Voting is where those words are tested.
Jayden's Law gave the Kentucky Senate an opportunity to put every member on record.
Vote yes.
Vote no.
Offer amendments.
Debate the death-penalty provision.
Debate the penalties.
Debate the language.
That is what legislators are elected to do.
But bring it to the floor and vote.
Instead, the session ended without every senator having to answer the simplest question imaginable:
Do you support strengthening Kentucky law to protect children from severe abuse and hold those responsible for their deaths accountable?
I am disappointed that they were never required to answer it.
And frankly, I am tired of legislation involving children being treated as though it can simply wait until another year.
A child doesn't get another year.
Jayden didn't.
When a ten-year-old child ends up dead and buried in a plastic tote, something has gone catastrophically wrong.
When that tragedy exposes weaknesses in our laws, lawmakers have a responsibility to examine those weaknesses and act.
That doesn't mean every senator had to agree with every sentence of SB 138. Legislators are supposed to debate legislation. They are supposed to amend it when necessary. They are supposed to argue their positions.
But they are also supposed to vote.
If a senator believed Jayden's Law was wrong, then vote against it and explain why.
If a senator believed it needed changes, offer those changes.
But allowing legislation this important to simply die without a final vote is not leadership.
And Kentucky's children deserve better than that.
So on this anniversary, I want to say two things.
First, thank you, Senator Brandon Smith.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for caring.
Thank you for putting your name on the legislation.
Thank you for standing up for a little boy who no longer had a voice of his own.
And thank you for being willing to continue the fight.
Second, to the Kentucky Senate:
Do better.
When Jayden's Law returns to Frankfort, don't bury it in procedure.
Don't let a committee assignment or legislative calendar become its tombstone.
Debate it.
Amend it if necessary.
Argue over it.
Then put it on the floor.
And vote.
Because there should never be another Jayden Spicer.
But if Kentucky's lawmakers truly believe that, then eventually they are going to have to do more than say it.
They're going to have to prove it.
Jayden Spicer was 10 years old.
One year later, he is still remembered.
And as far as this publication is concerned, the fight for Jayden's Law isn't over.