During a Kentucky home tour, house hunter discovers deceased body in vacant cottage on rural property

A tour takes a grim turn

Fleeing hurricanes in Florida, David Hammersley and his family traveled to Kentucky to look at homes. On Sept. 26, 2022, their realtor showed them a rural, 2-acre property in Burkesville, with a main house, detached garage and cottage.

Hammersley liked the property, including a Dodge truck in the garage. But as he and his family approached the cottage, they encountered a powerful stench. He and his father-in-law went to investigate.

Hammersley told Van Sant that he saw a man on the floor, apparently dead from gunshot wounds. The man was later identified as Harding.

Investigators follow a phone lead

An autopsy showed Harding had been shot four times: twice in the head and twice in the torso. Authorities found his phone at the scene, and Kentucky State Police lead investigator BJ Burton examined it.

Investigators learned that a realtor named James Fraser had contacted Harding about a repair. Harding worked as an HVAC technician, but the number used to reach him came from a prepaid cellphone.

A strained marriage and new suspect

Burton also found that Harding was going through a contentious divorce from his wife, Julie Harding, a California Highway Patrol captain. They lived separately: Mike Harding in Tennessee and Julie Harding in California.

Friends and family told authorities that Mike Harding feared Julie. Investigators obtained her call log and found around 194 calls in the months before his death with Thomas O’Donnell, a former car salesman from Houston who was living in Napa, California.

Burton said the phone was first turned on in the Houston area. He said he did not believe O’Donnell came to the area by accident and noted that Julie Harding was O’Donnell’s only connection to Michael Harding.