Sarah Perry
The Hamilton County Grand Jury on Tuesday afternoon indicted Jason Kirk Sanford, 43, of Westland, Mi., for first-degree murder in the June 2000 death of Sarah Lea (Davis) Perry.
Ms. Perry, 21, was last seen on the morning of Wednesday, June 14, 2000. The following afternoon two 12-year old boys playing in Spring Creek off the 1600 block of Springvale Avenue in East Ridge came upon a garbage can. One of the boys dared the other to open the lid. Inside the can was the partially nude body of Sarah Perry. The young mother, who had two small boys of her own, had been strangled.
Just a few hours before she disappeared, Ms. Perry called East Ridge Police (at 4:11 a.m. on Wednesday, June 14, 2000) to request they check her home on Lockhart Lane for her estranged boyfriend, Jason Sanford. She said Sanford had threatened to hurt her and was trying to find her. An hour later, at 5:11 a.m., a police officer stopped to talk to her as she walked along the 6400 block of Ringgold Road. She told the officer Sanford was angry because she had ended their relationship. Several other witnesses reported seeing Ms. Perry in East Ridge. She was last seen alive at 8:30 that morning.
The following evening, June 15, 2000, a few hours after the discovery of Ms. Perry’s body, Sanford bought a one-way ticket and boarded a Greyhound bus to Detroit. He has since been living in the Detroit metro area.
Ms. Perry's mother, Pam Hilton, contacted the Cold Case Unit in May of this year. Detective Brian Ashburn, who is assigned to the CCU by Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond, talked with her and then began a review of the case file. He said he quickly recognized the case could be solved.
This week Detective Ashburn and CCU investigator Michael Ray went to Detroit to conduct interviews in the case. Tuesday afternoon District Attorney General Neal Pinkston and CCU Supervisor Mike Mathis presented the case to the Grand Jury.
Sanford is being held in the Westland, Mi. jail pending extradition. A Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office fugitive team is expected to travel to Detroit in the coming days to pick up the defendant and return him to Hamilton County.
Jason Sanford