The soldier husband of an Alaska National Guard member found dead this week from a bullet wound to the head told investigators a different story than the one Anchorage detectives uncovered that led to his arrest for murder.
Spc. Zarrius Hildabrand, 21, reported Saria Hildabrand missing Monday after, he said, she didn’t return from work the day before, as CrimeOnline previously reported. He spent the week before her body was found posting desperate messages on social media and even walking the area with his mother-in-law, searching for the missing woman.
But as the week went on, according to court documents, pieces of the soldier’s story began to fall apart.
Zarrius Hildabrand told police that he and his 21-year-old wife went out with friends Saturday night to celebrate his birthday, returning home at about 2 a.m. On Sunday morning, he said, Saria decided to walk to her job at a restaurant because both of them were hungover and didn’t feel comfortable driving. She left between 9 and 10 a.m., he said, forgetting to take her phone, although she took her purse and wallet.
Hildabrand said he didn’t realize something was wrong until he went to pick her up from work at about 7 p.m. and learned she hadn’t come in. He still wasn’t concerned, he said, until about 10, but didn’t report his wife missing until the next day because he thought there was probably just a misunderstanding and she’d turn up.
The story falls apart
And that’s when police starting finding more questions than answers. Hildabrand refused to let officers search a bed in the couple’s home after they noticed a missing sheet on the bed and new sheets on a kitchen table. He claimed there were “embarrassing” items and “stuff used for sex” underneath it, the complaint said.
Investigators later found that Zarrius — who initially said he had “vegetated” at home all day but later said he ran several errands — had bought several items on Sunday from a Fred Meyer store, including the sheet set, a mattress cover, and hydrogen peroxide.
On Wednesday, officers executed a search warrant and found “there was so much blood on the mattress that the blood soaked through onto the carpet and into the wood frame,” the complaint said.
They also recovered two handguns, one missing a bullet from the magazine. Police had seen the two handguns when Hildabrand refused to let them search, but the next day he told the Army Criminal Investigation Division he had only one gun.
Investigators also found evidence of blood in the apartment’s bathtub and on some of the floors, “most likely after ‘cleanup’ attempts were made,” the document said.
A neighbor reported hearing a gunshot at about 2:45 a.m., but police who responded to the call found nothing amiss.
Investigators learned that Saria Hildabrand’s phone had texted a co-worker at about 10:45 a.m. saying she wasn’t coming in to work. The co-worker told her she needed to talk to her boss, but she didn’t call. Zarrius said he didn’t send the text and couldn’t explain how his wife’s phone, left behind when she headed off for work, sent a text 45 minutes later.
In an interview, one of the friends the couple had been out with Saturday night said that Saria had said she wasn’t going to work on Sunday.
On Thursday, detectives tracking Hildabrand’s phone found that he had been to Lowe’s, where he bought a large, wheeled garbage can. They found a similar can on a landscaping truck not far from the apartment complex where the couple lived and took it into custody. The truck had been parked near a trail, and officers brought a drone to the area and found evidence that led them to Saria Hildabrand’s body in bloody storm drain off the trail.
Anchorage police announced Zarrius Hildabrand’s arrest on Friday, saying he had been charged with first and second degree murder and tampering with evidence.
‘Concerned husband’
From Sunday until Thursday, however, he played the part of worried husband, posting messages on his social media accounts and searching for Saria with her mother, who flew from Utah to Alaska to search after the “concerned husband” called her to say her daughter was missing.
“He walked around for hours with me searching for my daughter knowing that she was dead,” Meredith Barney told the Anchorage Daily News. “He lied to me multiple times, and tried to play it off like he was a concerned husband.”
The Hildabrands were married in December, and Saria moved to Alaska earlier this year to be with her new husband. She was a combat medic with the Alaska Army National Guard, having joined up in April. She previously served with the Utah Army National Guard. Zarrius is assigned to the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 11th Airborne Division, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
Both units acknowledged the case in statements.
“Spc. Hildabrand took an oath to selflessly serve and defend not only the state of Alaska, but the entire nation, a commitment worthy of admiration and respect. Her untimely passing impacts everyone on the Alaska National Guard team. She will be sorely missed,” the National Guard statement read.
“The 11th Airborne Division is saddened to hear of the death of Specialist Saria Barney Hildabrand of the Alaska Army National Guard and offer our condolences to her family. Any loss in the Army family is a tragedy,” the Army’s statement read, acknowledging Zarrius Hildabrand’s arrest as well.
This story was compiled from reports about the arrest documents by KTUU, the Anchorage Daily News, and Law & Crime.
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[Featured image: Saria Hildabrand/family handout]
