The Arkansas state medical examiner’s office found that 25-year-old Sydney Sutherland, the Jackson County nurse whose body was found two days after she didn’t return from an afternoon jog, died from multiple blunt force injuries, KATV reports.
Quake Lewellyn, 28, faces charges of kidnapping, rape, and capital murder in Sutherland’s disappearance and death.
Sutherland was last seen at about 2:30 p.m. on August 19 went she went out for a run, as CrimeOnline previously reported. Her body was found on August 21, and Lewellyn, a member of a well-known local farming family who was known to the victim, was arrested on the same day.
Lewellyn appeared in court on August 24 for a preliminary hearing, at which time an Arkansas State Police agent testified that Lewellyn saw Sutherland as he was driving on Country Road 41 and turned around to pursue her. He allegedly kidnapped her, put her in the back of his pickup truck, and sexually assaulted her.
Lewellyn was ordered held without bail at that hearing and is due back in court on October 1 for his arraignment.
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[Featured image: Sydney Sutherland/Jackson County Sheriff’s Office]