A 48-year-old Arkansas man serving a life sentence for the 2018 murder of his wife has confessed toe another murder — the 1991 death of 19-year-old Sabrina Lynn Underwood.
Rick Allen Headley pleaded guilty to stabbing his estranged wife, Kirstie Headley, in March 2018 and was sentenced to life without parole. Sabrina Underwood disappeared on January 20, 1991, and was found dead on April 8, 140 miles away near the Gum Springs Cemetery in Fulton County, KATV reported.
Arkansas State Police and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office had worked the case for years but got a major break in July 2022 when an attorney contacted them. The attorney said his client, an inmate in the Arkansas prison system, had information that could lead to Underwood’s killer.
Underwood was last seen when her mother dropped her off at the intersection of U.S. 412 and U.S. 62 near Bear Creek Springs in Boone County. From there, she planned to hitchhike 70 miles east to Izard County, where her boyfriend was jailed in Calico Rock. She’d made the same trip a week earlier, but this time she never made it to Calico Rock.
Underwood’s boyfriend called her mother to find out why she didn’t come, and a missing person’s report was filed on January 24. Turkey hunters found a bundle of clothes near the Gum Springs Cemetery less than three months later, and police found remains identified as Underwood. The county coroner ruled the death undetermined.
The inmate offering the tip had a confession letter, reportedly written by Headley that contained details about Underwood’s murder. Investigators questioned him on August 24, 2022, and he identified a photo of the victim and said he wrote the confession letter.
According to an affidavit, he said that Underwood tried to extort money from him but he “knew he could not let her ruin his life.” He told the investigators how he killed the 19-year-old, hid her body, and got rid of the knife he used to stab her. Then, he said, he went home, threw away the clothes he was wearing, and showered.
The affidavit says that investigators interviewed a second witness two days later, and that witness said Headley had admitted killing Underwood a month earlier to get it “off his chest.”
Police did not say why it took a year to file the charges against Headley after his confession, nor did they mention that he would have been 16 at the time of the murder.
Headley is scheduled to appear in court on November 13 on a charge of first degree murder in Underwood’s death.
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[Featured image: Rick Headley/Arkansas Department of Corrections and Sabrina Underwood/Arkansas State Police]
