Former Soldier Zarrius Hildabrand Sentenced to 59 Years to Serve in Alaska for Killing His Wife and Hiding Her Body in a Storm Drain, With 25 More Years Suspended
According to a news release from the Alaska Department of Law, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Peter Ramgren on October 25 sentenced Zarrius Hildabrand, 24, a former soldier, to a composite 84 years in prison with 25 years suspended, leaving 59 years to serve, for the August 2023 killing of his 21-year-old wife, Saria Hildabrand, whose body he hid in a storm drain. He will not be eligible for parole until he has served at least two-thirds of the active sentence. A jury in June had found him guilty of one count of second-degree murder, sentenced at 55 years, and two counts of tampering with physical evidence, sentenced at two years each and imposed consecutively.
On August 6, 2023, after the couple returned home from celebrating Hildabrand's 21st birthday, Saria confronted him over his infidelity and he shot her in the head at their home. Over the following days he bought cleaning supplies and a 96-gallon trash can to move her body, placed it in a storm drain at a park and poured gasoline over it. He then filed a false missing-person report and joined her family, military personnel and police in searching for her. Saria's body was found on August 10, 2023. Hildabrand was then a combat medic stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson; Saria was herself training as a combat medic with the Alaska National Guard.
In sentencing, Judge Ramgren said that although the jury had not convicted Hildabrand of first-degree murder, he believed the killing was intentional, and noted the defendant's apparent lack of remorse through police interviews, the search for his wife and his testimony at trial, saying he never seemed to show concern for anyone other than himself. Several of Saria's family members spoke at the hearing about her character and the murder's impact on their family; Hildabrand offered no statement. The case was investigated by the Anchorage Police Department's Homicide Unit with the cooperation of the Army Criminal Investigation Division and prosecuted by District Attorney Brittany Dunlop and Assistant District Attorney Kaila Hurley.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于阿拉斯加州 Anchorage 的 Boney 法院大楼，本案在此审理量刑（资料图）。图片：Wonderlane，CC BY 2.0（Wikimedia Commons）。Photo: The Boney Courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska, where the case was tried and sentenced (file photo). Image: Wonderlane, CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons).
