A farmer in Arkansas has been sentenced to life in prison after he confessed to the rape and murder of nurse Sydney Sutherland. The farmer, identified as Quake Lowlin, 29, changed his plea to guilty in court on Friday as part of a deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty, and the prosecution dropped charges of kidnapping and abuse of a corpse.
Sutherland, 25, disappeared in August 2020 while jogging on a road in Jackson County, near Newport, Arkansas, where she was attacked, according to Fox News. Lowlin told authorities he hit her with his truck without realizing it due to the dust from the gravel road, and when he thought she was dead, he transported her body to a rice field where he dug a hole, stripped her, and raped her.
After her disappearance, Lowlin joined volunteers to search for Sutherland and became a member of a Facebook group dedicated to finding her. Her body was discovered two days later in a shallow grave not far from Lowlin's home. He was arrested shortly after, and in his written confession, he admitted to hitting her with his truck, raping her, and burying her body.
Law enforcement officials in the state stated that the two had known each other previously, but did not disclose further details, according to The Independent.
During the court session in Jackson County, the victim’s mother, Maggie Sutherland, requested Lowlin to look at her while she read a statement during the trial. She said, "Look me in the eye, you treated her like she was nothing, but she was everything to me. You didn’t just kill Sydney that day; something inside me also died." She added, "The hands that hugged me are the same hands that killed her," referring to his involvement in the search for Sutherland.
