Tyler

By KENNETH DEAN Staff Writer HENDERSON -- She was a vibrant 15-year-old honor student at Leverett's Chapel High School at the time of her death -- seven years after her murder a set of new detectives hope they can uncover who strangled Jessica Louise Sadler to death and buried her under a trash pile near her home.

Rusk County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Darryl Norris would not give specifics, but said new information had been obtained and two previous suspects and two new suspects have been identified and are under investigation.

"There are four people that we want to bring in, sit down with and see what they have to say," he said. "We have good expectations and some good hope that we can get this solved."

Sadler, who was found dead on Oct. 23, 2001, in the vicinity of County Roads 158 and 163 in the Laird Hill community, had reportedly gone for a walk five days earlier and never returned home.

Volunteers, firefighters and law enforcement combed the heavily wooded area looking for the girl, but they found her lifeless body about 100 yards from her own home under piles of insulation and other discarded trash at an illegal dump site.

Curtis Dewayne Howard, 18, a senior at Leverett's Chapel High at the time, was arrested the day following the discovery and was charged with sexually assaulting her.

"Howard is the lead suspect in Miss Sadler's death, but we must gather all the physical evidence first and that may take awhile," then Sheriff James Stroud said at the time.

Howard was never charged with Sadler's death, but stood trial in 2003 for sexual assault and was acquitted after the prosecution attempted to tie him to the murder.

The jury told prosecutors they didn't see any DNA or other physical evidence tying Howard to the murder scene.

Howard never denied a relationship with Sadler and testified they had been seeing each other and had sex the day she disappeared. However, he denied any involvement with her death.

Norris said Thursday Howard remains a suspect and they are still looking at him despite the acquittal.

Upon questioning, he said, her father, Daniel Sadler, was also mentioned as a possible suspect because there were "inconsistencies" in his story.

He did not confirm if Sadler was a suspect, but said a team of new investigators "with fresh eyes" had reviewed the case and found some of Sadler's stories "didn't add up."

There was no indication given as to who may round out the suspect list, but Norris did say they would be talking to all of the original witnesses in the case and anyone who may have new information. "Of course we have always wanted to solve the case, but some of the things we have learned recently, which I can't go into now, have given us those good expectations in the case, and we really believe it will come around," he said.

Anyone with information in the case is asked to call Rusk County Crime Stoppers at 903-655-8477 or the sheriff's office at 903-657-3581.