PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (LEX 18) — Remains found in Prestonsburg last year have been positively identified as 36-year-old Kandi Gonzalez, who had been missing since June 2021.
Police made her family aware this week.
“It’s pretty heart-stopping because all this time — I held out hope that she was still alive, and now it’s the end,” Kandi’s mother Betty Dixon said as she fought back tears.
Dixon said it was her niece that found the bones in the woods last year after a logger had found a nearby skull.
“She didn't know at the time that it was Kandi — she just saw something white and just started pulling it out of the ground and she comes away with teeth in her hand,” Dixon said.
Police used DNA to see if it was Kandi’s. The family, as well as authorities, had searched extensively for her. Betty said she would travel from her home in Central Kentucky to Floyd County every weekend.
Kandi was the mother of a 5-year-old.
“She was so happy. She loved people, and would do anything for them,” Dixon said “She loved her little boy above anything.”
While an official cause of death has not been determined, Dixon said the family thinks foul play was involved. They’ve been frustrated with the police investigation.
Dixon is now planning for her daughter’s funeral, which is set for July 8 in Jessamine County.
She’s currently collecting pictures to be used at the funeral.
"I'm never gonna get that hug again, I'm never gonna get to hear her laugh again," Dixon said, looking at the photos. “I can look at all these and remember all the great times and the fun times that we had, but we'll never talk about it again, I won't have that again because somebody took that right away from me, somebody did.”
