An Arkansas man has been charged with murder after confessing to killing a woman whose remains were found 32 years ago.
Rick Allen Headley, 48, was charged last week with first-degree murder for the 1991 killing of 19-year-old Sabrina Underwood of Huntsville, Arkansas, state police wrote in a Friday press release. Headley was already an inmate at the Varner Maximum Security Unit when he was charged with Underwood’s murder.
“Sabrina’s family still suffers from the pain of her absence, but we hope this week’s arrest will provide them with some comfort and long-sought answers,” Arkansas State Police Col. Mike Hagar said in the press release. “We will never give up on finding justice for families like the Underwoods.”
In January 1991, Underwood’s mother reported her daughter missing, telling police she dropped Underwood off near Bear Creek in Boone County. Underwood had planned to hitchhike about 70 miles to the North Central Unit prison in Calico Rock to visit her boyfriend, CBS News reported. She never made it to the prison.
Three months later, in April, a hunter found items that belonged to Underwood near the Gum Springs Cemetery in Fulton County – about 140 miles from Huntsville. Deputies dispatched to the scene found human remains and requested assistance from the state police. The remains were soon identified as Underwood.
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For years, the state police, Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, and the 16th Judicial Drug Task Force worked to solve Underwood’s murder, but the case remained cold for three decades.
Then, in July 2022, an inmate at the Varner prison contacted the state police through his attorney and indicated that Headley had confessed to murdering Underwood in 1991. At the time, Headley lived in Mountain Home.
Investigators talked to the inmate, who provided a confession letter he said Headley gave him that contained details about Underwood’s murder.
During an interview with investigators, Headley allegedly admitted to writing the confession letter and identified a photo of Underwood, according to an affidavit reviewed by CBS. Headley reportedly told investigators that Underwood had attempted to extort him for money, but he “knew he could not let her ruin his life,” KATV reported.
Headley also allegedly told investigators that he hoped no one else had been arrested for Underwood’s murder.
Headley is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole after he pleaded guilty to stabbing his estranged wife Kirstie to death in March 2018.