Court records describe competing facts about Andrew Hillard’s entry into a jointly owned residence before Em McCormick allegedly shot him.
SALVISA, Ky. — The murder case against Em McCormick turns in part on a deceptively simple object found after her estranged husband was shot: a key to the back door of the Mercer County home where the couple had lived.
McCormick, 33, told investigators that Andrew Hillard, 35, arrived unannounced on Aug. 23 while the two were divorcing, walked around the house and entered through a rear door after making or obtaining a key. She had already texted a friend for help, according to the complaint warrant. But investigators said Hillard remained a co-owner of the property, had belongings there and was not subject to a protective or stay-away order. The dispute over how he entered, what happened afterward and whether the physical evidence supports McCormick’s account is now headed to a grand jury. A judge has also ordered her held without bond.
Before the shooting, McCormick sent a message to a friend saying Hillard had “made a key” and was inside the residence, according to the warrant as quoted in local reports. The friend called authorities. McCormick later told police that Hillard had first knocked, that she did not answer, and that she watched him on cameras move toward the back of the house. She said he used a key to open a rear door leading into the bedroom. The available court-based reporting does not establish when the key was made, how Hillard obtained it or whether McCormick knew before that evening that he had access.
Property records described in the criminal case added another layer. Multiple outlets citing court documents reported that Hillard’s name remained on the deed and that he was a co-owner of the residence. He had stopped living there, but investigators said some of his personal property remained inside. No emergency protective order, domestic violence order or other stay-away order prohibited him from entering. Those facts are important to the legal and investigative setting, but they do not answer every question about consent, notice or the couple’s private arrangements while the divorce was pending.
Once Hillard was inside, McCormick said the encounter became physical. She told investigators the two argued and that Hillard pushed her onto the bed. The complaint does not identify the subject of the argument. McCormick said she then reached beneath a pillow for a handgun. According to her statement as summarized in the warrant, she and Hillard moved from the bedroom toward the hallway and she fired. She later told her friend that she had shot him and said he was near the front entryway, according to local reporting.
Deputies arriving at the McAfee Lane home found Hillard dead near the front of the residence. The medical examiner and investigators said he had been shot in the back. Deputy Robert Hardman wrote in the complaint warrant that Hillard appeared to have been walking down the hallway toward the front door when he was shot. The warrant also said officers found a key to the rear door in his right hand and a crumpled pack of cigarettes in his left. Those details became part of the probable-cause case supporting the murder charge.
Investigators also reported what they did not find. Hardman said there was no obvious sign of forced entry and no obvious sign of a struggle in the bedroom. Authorities said they found no evidence of a physical altercation at the scene that matched the account McCormick gave them. WKYT reported that investigators compared her statements with interviews, phone records and other evidence and concluded that parts of her version did not line up with what they had learned. The public reports do not provide every piece of evidence, and those assertions have not yet been tested at trial.
The couple’s legal separation gives the property dispute added context. Hillard filed for divorce in July 2025 after the couple separated in June of that year, according to court records reported by FOX 56. They had married in Florida in 2016. The dissolution filing described the marriage as irretrievably broken. Despite the separation, the home remained connected to both of them through ownership. Four days before the shooting, on Aug. 19, a court filing allowed McCormick’s divorce attorney to withdraw from the civil case. No reliable source reviewed for this article has tied that withdrawal to the shooting.
Authorities have also said they found no documented history of domestic violence involving Hillard and no prior protective order barring him from the residence. That point has been cited by investigators as part of the context for evaluating McCormick’s claim that she feared or confronted him after he entered. It does not prove that no conflict occurred that night, and it does not substitute for the factual findings a jury might eventually make. The available record contains McCormick’s allegation that Hillard pushed her, along with investigators’ statement that they did not see physical evidence of a struggle in the bedroom.
Police did not immediately arrest McCormick at the home. The investigation continued for several days as deputies processed the scene, conducted interviews and obtained records. On Aug. 31, authorities secured a warrant charging McCormick with murder-domestic violence, and she was taken into custody. WTVQ reported that investigators had executed multiple search warrants before determining they had probable cause to seek the murder charge. McCormick was transferred to the Woodford County Detention Center, where she has remained.
A not-guilty plea was entered for McCormick at her September arraignment. District Judge Patrick F. Barsotti declined to set a bond at that stage, citing the charge and her out-of-state ties, according to the Harrodsburg Herald. The case returned to court Oct. 1, when a pretrial hearing was waived and the matter was sent to a grand jury. That body will decide whether there is enough evidence to indict her and move the prosecution forward in circuit court. An indictment, if returned, would be an accusation rather than a finding of guilt.
McCormick later asked the court for bond, but Barsotti denied that request in a written ruling dated Oct. 9. The judge cited the manner and location of the gunshot wound when analyzing whether the proof was evident enough under the Kentucky Constitution to justify detention without bail. The ruling means McCormick remains incarcerated as the grand jury process unfolds. It does not resolve the ultimate factual disputes over Hillard’s entry, the alleged confrontation or whether McCormick’s use of deadly force was legally justified.
Hillard’s family held a memorial gathering in Frankfort after his death. His obituary says he was born in Frankfort, moved to Mercer County as a child and graduated from Mercer County High School in 2010. He worked in the electrical field and later attended lineman school in Tennessee. Friends who spoke with WKYT remembered him as nonconfrontational and said he had left the shared home during the couple’s breakup. Their views are personal accounts of Hillard’s character, not findings about the disputed events inside the house.
As of Oct. 19, the public record leaves several central questions unresolved: what Hillard intended when he went to the home, what occurred during the argument, whether a push happened as McCormick described, and how a fact-finder will interpret the physical evidence cited by investigators. No trial date has been publicly reported in the sources reviewed. McCormick remains charged with murder-domestic violence, remains jailed without bond and is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Author note: Last updated October 19, 2026.