Arrest made
An Indiana woman was arrested for 2015 murder; second suspect dead
CELINA — A Marion, Indiana woman was arrested Wednesday in connection with the killing of Ryan Zimmerman, whose skeletal remains were found in Mercer County in 2016.
Sarah Buzzard, 30, was arrested and charged with two counts of abuse of a corpse, one count of grand theft auto and four counts of tampering with evidence, Mercer County Sheriff Jeff Grey announced Wednesday morning at a press conference held at the Mercer County Sheriff ’s Office.
Buzzard is currently being held in the Mercer County Jail without bond. She is expected to be arraigned at 10:30 a.m. Friday in Celina Municipal Court.
A second suspect, Naria Jenna Whitaker, 33, and wife of Buzzard’s, was being served an arrest warrant in Marion yesterday, but as police officers went to arrest her, Whitaker pulled a handgun from her purse and died from a self-inflicted gunshot.
The suicide is being investigated by the Marion Police Department.
Zimmerman, of Corbin, Kentucky, was reported missing to the Columbus Police Department on Nov. 17, 2015, after his family had been unable to make contact with him since Sept. 27, 2015.
Grey said that Zimmerman was active on social media and met and befriended Buzzard and her ex-husband and was staying with them in Columbus.
Skeletal remains were then found on Jan. 3, 2016 along U.S. 127 near Coldwater Creek. After investigations, the remains were determined to be human.
Mercer County Sheriff’s deputies, BCI agents and ODNR park officers searched the area for two days to recover more skeletal remains.
The remains — which were exposed to the elements less than 12 months, but probably only three to four months — were examined by Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Elizabeth Murray.
Further investigation revealed that some of the remains found had been intentionally severed from the body.
A sample of the remains were sent to the University of North Texas for further evaluation.
After a few months, the university was able to extract a complete DNA profile for which included nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA.
“Nuclear DNA comes from your parents and it’s the DNA only you have,” said Grey. “Brothers and sisters aren’t going to have the same nuclear DNA as you. Mitochondrial DNA comes just from your mother. Everyone who shares the same mother, shares the same mitochondrial DNA.”
Grey said authorities pursued every angle they could for a “couple of years” trying to identify the body.
Ultimately, Mercer County detectives contacted IsoForensics, a stable isotope analysis and data interpretation company out of Utah, to further study the remains.
Through phenotyping, the lab was able to extract information from remains and they’re able to determine where somebody has possibly lived in the last 10 years based on water and air consumption of the person.
“This phenotyping did show several places in the United State, but one of them had jumped out to us just because of the location and proximity of us. There was a little dot,” said Grey. “Originally it was so small that I thought it was a printer error. Detectives checked and said that’s supposed to be there. It was right in Corbin, Kentucky.”
Grey gave credit to Jennifer Lester, an analyst for the Ohio BCI, who was able to “connect the dots,” he said.
“Our detectives had been talking to her about our case. She’d been analyzing information for us. She found a similar description of a missing person similar timeframe and stuff from Columbus PD,” said Grey. “With the similarities of the case and Columbus PD having a missing person’s report, Columbus PD requested and received DNA samples from Ryan’s parents. That’s where the mitochondrial and nuclear DNA
became so important. When they got that, the lab was able to positively identify that their missing person was the son of the parents in Corbin, Kentucky.”
“Jennifer Lester is kind of the hero of the case because she had that missing piece of the puzzle we were trying so hard to find.”
With the identity of Zimmerman’s body figured out, authorities began a search for his killer.
“Over the last 14 months, the sheriff’s office served numerous search warrants on electronic media companies. We had learned Ryan use a lot of social platforms to communicate, even some we were not familiar with,” said Grey.
As the investigation progressed, Grey said they zeroed in on the location of the crime, in Columbus, and gathered more information, requesting and receiving investigative help from Columbus PD’s cold case and surveillance units.
“The investigation led us to the location where Ryan was murdered and dismembered, a search warrant was executed at that location in Columbus by Mercer County Sheriff’s detectives, Columbus PD and the crime scene processed by Ohio BCI, critical evidence was located to be examined at the BCI Crime Lab,” said Grey.
Law enforcement authorities
found out that the car that was used to transport Zimmerman’s remains was traded in to a car dealership shortly after his murder.
Detectives were able to track that car down, execute a search warrant and locate critical forensic evidence in it using the Ohio BCI Crime Scene Unit to process the car.
The Mercer County Sheriff’s Office now has possession of that car and the most recent owner of the vehicle was not involved.
On Wednesday, Mercer County detectives, assisted by members of local police departments, were active in Columbus, Marion, Indiana and Oak Island, North Carolina to interview suspects and witnesses.
“Mercer County detectives in these locations conducted interviews of witnesses and suspects simultaneously in all jurisdictions so the people being interviewed could not communicate with each other,” said Grey.
Buzzard and Whitaker were living in Marion; Buzzard’s ex-husband lived in Columbus and the ex-husband was with someone the day of the murder who resides in Oak Island.
Neither the ex-husband nor who he was with are considered suspects in the case as Grey said he believes Buzzard and Whitaker acted by themselves.
Grey was asked about a possible motive, replying that it’s something that needs to be held for the court process.
When asked about why the two buried the remains in Mercer County, Grey said that the area was along the route of Columbus to Marion.
“To our knowledge, just the driving through from Marion to Columbus. It’s a pretty easy shot,” said Grey. “I always say, people think they can come to smaller communities like Mercer County and get away with things. I would suggest people don’t do that because small counties like us, we got time to work it. Some of the big cities where they have two, three homicides a week — even when we can’t figure out where to go next, we don’t put it on a shelf.”
Grey expressed his thanks to the public and his sympathy for Zimmerman’s family.
“I want to thank for the public for their patience. This was a very complicated and unusual case. It took many twists and turns. But I gotta say, my detectives never gave up,” said Grey.
“My heart goes out to them. I think we did the best we could for them under the circumstances to give them some closure and to hold people accountable. You don’t just get to kill somebody and go on with your life.”