Details released in killing of female jogger

NEWPORT — Sydney Sutherland’s killer rammed her with a pickup as she jogged along a rural highway before raping and burying her in a field outside Newport, according to recently filed court documents.

The suspect, Quake Lewellyn, 28, of Jonesboro, is awaiting trial on charges of capital murder, rape, kidnapping and abuse of a corpse. He remains jailed without bail and he is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 29.

A probable-cause affidavit filed Thursday afternoon stated the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office received a call about Sutherland’s disappearance about 7 p.m. Aug. 19. The affidavit doesn’t reveal who made the call.

News of Sutherland’s disappearance spread across northeast Arkansas, and a community search party was formed to look for her. Lewellyn was among those who took part in the search effort, authorities said.

Sutherland, 25, a Tuckerman native, was a registered nurse at Unity Health-Harris Medical Center. She had just passed her boards months earlier, her friends said.

Jackson County Sheriff David Lucas said last month that Lewellyn saw Sutherland jogging as he drove by, made a U-turn and then attacked her. Lucas also said it was his understanding that Lewellyn and Sutherland knew each other, but not “particularly well.”

A message left Friday with Lucas was not returned.

Prosecutor Henry Boyce and Lewellyn’s defense attorney Bill James also didn’t return messages.

On Aug. 20, authorities found Sutherland’s iPhone “in a field along Jackson County Road 41 South,” located about 1.3 miles from her home, according to the affidavit.

One day after locating the victim’s phone, authorities in Jackson announced they had discovered Sutherland’s body in a deserted field and had arrested Lewellyn.

Creston Hutton, a senior special agent with the Arkansas State Police who investigated the case, wrote in the affidavit that Sutherland’s body was located after a “consent search” of the suspect’s phone. The “location services application” on Lewellyn’s phone led to the area where Sutherland was buried, Hutton wrote.

Lewellyn was read his Miranda rights and subsequently admitted to killing Sutherland, police said.

The suspect told investigators that he saw Sutherland jogging on County Road 41 South, more than a mile from her home, and then struck her with his pickup, according to the affidavit.

Lewellyn loaded her into the vehicle and drove her to a remote location, police said. That’s where he raped and buried her, Hutton wrote.