A man convicted of raping and murdering a young pregnant mother and accused of killing another woman is dead, WZZM-TV reports.
The Michigan Department of Corrections confirmed that Gary Dean Artman died this week from natural causes while serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of 29-year-old Sharron Hammack.
He was 66 years old and had terminal cancer.
As CrimeOnline reported previously, Artman was convicted in September of open murder, felony murder and felony criminal sexual conduct in connection with the attack on Hammack nearly three decades ago.
On October 3, 1996, a delivery driver came upon Hammack’s body near Grand Rapids. She had been strangled, stabbed and hogtied, and investigators determined she was raped. Hammack was also pregnant.
Police recovered DNA from the scene that was later linked to Artman, and investigators also uncovered disturbing material Artman allegedly wrote.
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“All the girls I wanted to have and couldn’t when I was growing up in high school, I can now get,” Artman allegedly wrote in a letter to his brother, according to Fox 17.
“You ask yourself who you are. Here is who you are: you are death itself to those who deserve it and life to those who live it,” another piece of writing states. “The strange thing is I never felt guilty about raping them.”
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Artman was a trucker from Florida at the time he attacked Hammack, a pregnant mother of two who was known to engage in sex work. Authorities believe he may be a serial killer, in part because there were 11 other killings around the same time that have similarities to how Hammack died.
While serving the life sentence, Artman was facing charges in Maryland in connection with the 2006 death of 24-year-old Myriah Shuck based on DNA evidence.
At a sentencing hearing in October, one of Hammack’s sisters spoke to Artman directly in court with words that bear relevance to his passing.
“I hope you rot in hell,” Tina DeYoung told Artman, according to WOOD-TV.
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[Feature Photo: Sharron Hammack/Handout]
