Man in Prison for Murder Confesses to Killing of Huntsville Woman over 30 Years Ago

The unsolved murder of a woman last seen in Harrison in 1991 has been solved.

The full story below from KTLO:

A Mountain Home man serving a life sentence in prison for killing his estranged wife at the Dollar General Store on Arkansas Highway 5 South in Mountain Home in 2018, has now been charged with murder in connection with a case from 1991. 48-year-old Rick Allen Headley has confessed to the murder of 19-year-old Sabrina Underwood in Fulton County. Headley was 16-years-old at the time of the crime.

Sabrina Underwood

According to court documents in the case, Underwood, who was from Huntsville, had been dropped off by her mother Jan. 20, 1991, north of Harrison so she could hitchhike to the Arkansas Department of Corrections North Central Unit in Calico Rock to visit an inmate, something she had done the week before.

A missing person report was filed with law enforcement after her family never heard from her.

On April 8, 1991, a hunter in Fulton County found clothing and other items in a bundle near the Gum Spring Cemetery which is located just north of U.S. Highway 62/412 between Viola and Salem.

Fulton County deputies discovered human remains in a wooded area near the cemetery. Deputies and Arkansas State Police investigators then found human bones and hair, underwear and an earring stud.

The victim was positively identified as Underwood by the clothing and jewelry she had on when she was dropped off by her mother.

The remains were sent to the Arkansas State Crime Lab, but Underwood’s cause of death was ruled as undetermined at the time.

Over the years, investigators conducted numerous interviews and developed possible suspects, but nothing resulted in an arrest.

But this past summer, law enforcement got a break. In July, the Madison County Sheriff’s Office in Huntsville received information from an attorney who has a client who had information that could possibly assist in identifying the suspect who murdered Underwood.

In August, investigators with the state police and Fulton County Sheriff’s Office interviewed the witness who said he was currently incarcerated with Headley at the Varner Unit in Gould. The witness told law enforcement Headley had given him a confession letter with the details of Underwood’s murder. The letter was given to investigators.

A few days later, investigators met with Headley. He told them he was returning to Mountain Home and had stopped in Bellefonte to get gas when he was approached by Underwood. He says she asked where he was going, and asked for a ride when she found out he was headed to Mountain Home.

Headley says Underwood told him she was going to a family member’s house in either Viola or Salem and asked if he would take her the rest of the way, which he agreed to. He contends Underwood said she didn't have any gas money, but could take care of him in another way and started making sexual advances.

Headley says he drove past a business in Viola he intended to stop at, but there were people there. So, he turned onto the first round he saw and pulled into a cemetery where the two had sex. Headley says after they finished, Underwood asked him if he had any money, saying she needed a couple hundred dollars. Headley asserts Underwood said she needed the money or she would tell everyone he hurt her.

Headley says he started to leave, but knew he could not let her “ruin his life” over something he didn’t do. So, he says he attacked her and dragged her through the cemetery into a wooded area. He then used a “Rambo” style of knife to kill her.

He says he used the knife to cut through her neck, using a rock to help get the knife all the way through. He says he decapitated her “so there would be no chance she would ever be able to tell on him.”

Headley contends the murder would not have happened if Underwood hadn’t said what she did, saying he “wasn’t going down like that.”

He says after the murder, he covered her body with sticks and leaves. Headley then gathered her items out of the truck and threw them in the woods.

Headley also admitted to throwing the knife and rock from his truck several miles from the crime scene as he was driving home.

He then went to his apartment in Mountain Home to shower, then took his clothes, put them in a trash bag and put them in a dumpster behind the Village Mall.

Headley told investigators he still remembers Underwood’s name “because you never forget the person if you’ve ever killed someone.”

Headley is facing a charge of first degree murder in the case. He is set to make his first court appearance Nov. 13 in Fulton County.

Headley is serving a life in prison without parole sentence for the killing of his estranged wife in Mountain Home in 2018.

More details on that case can be found on the KTLO Website.