Rick Headley (Photo courtesy of Arkansas Department of Corrections)
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. Forty-eight-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 didnt 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.
According to the probable cause affidavit in that case, Mountain Home Police were called to the Dollar General Store on State Highway 5 South about 10 p.m. March 13th. When officers entered the store, they reported finding 38-year-old Kirstie Headley, a store employee, lying on the floor.
Rick Headley is alleged to have entered the store, grabbed his estranged wife by the shirt and dragged her outside. Witnesses told officers they saw Rick Headley with a knife in his right hand and saw him stab his estranged wife several times.
Video surveillance cameras at the store captured scenes of Kirstie Headley walking back into the store holding her chest. They reported she was covered with blood. Emergency medical personnel arrived and transported the victim to Baxter Regional Medical Center where she died a short time later.
Officers reported Rick Headley fled the scene and was captured a few hours later. He is reported to have told officers he went to his estranged wife’s place of employment with the intention of killing her and interviews with family members have since confirmed his intentions.
Kirstie Headley had filed two affidavits seeking orders of protection to keep Rick Headley away from her. In both, she mentions he had threatened her with a knife and in one instance had allegedly stabbed her in the left hip. She wrote in one of the affidavits Rick Headley had become more obsessive and controlling in the relationship.
Rick Headley was captured after a friend of his called the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office and reported Headley was at the friends home and wanted to surrender. Law officers converged at the address and took Headley into custody.
Headley then picked up more charges in the Baxter County Detention Center when he threatened to kill a staff member. Headley was reported to have homemade knives in his cell giving him the means to carry out his threats.
Two inmates told detention center personnel Headley had said he intended to kill a specific jailer if the opportunity presented itself.
According to an incident report written by the sheriff’s office, jailers did a search of Headley’s cell and found three pieces of metal sharpened down into points. One of the make-shift knives had a handle on it.
Two of the sharpened metal pieces were found on the bottom side of the top bunk in the cell and the third in Headley’s sleeping mat tucked into the foam padding.
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