GUILTY MT - Sherry Arnold, 43, Sidney, 7 Jan 2012 - #4

SheWhoMustNotBeNamed

Former Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2006
Messages
21,188
Reaction score
1,168
Website
www.facebook.com
Please continue here.

D79B2534F4C78A42F727D62D42144FCD_292_292.jpg

http://www.kbzk.com/news/search-underway-for-missing-montana-teacher/

43-year-old Sherry Arnold disappeared from Sidney, Montana while on an early morning jog on Saturday, January 7, 2012. Her running shoe was later found next to the road on her route. The following Friday, her death was "confirmed", although her body has not been found. Two men have been arrested in North Dakota and charged with aggravated kidnapping in connection with her disappearance.


Thread #1

Thread #2

Thread #3
 
I'm not sure if this has already been posted but this is a quote from a family member's website:

"For several days there was no sign of Sherry. On the seventh day, a tip was received on the FBI’s tip line that led to the arrest of two men, one in North Dakota and one in South Dakota. One of the men confessed to killing Sherry. She had been abducted at 6:40 a.m., only about a mile from her house."

There is also a fundraiser/run set up at the link. http://www.shutupandrun.net/2012/01/virtual-run-for-sherry-arnold-february.html
 
Montanasleuth wrote:

I agree with the post regarding the odd coincidences of the Florida locations. the man they arrested for Brian Doyle's death lived in Jensen Beach , Martin County and has arrest records in Martin County for stolen goods , felony driving while sickened and parole violations. The person he is accused of killing live in a very nearby county. Lester Vann Waters, suspect in Sherry Arnold's disappearance lived in nd has arrest records in an adjacent county Indian River. neither location is large in terms of city population, and both were living there and were arrested in similar time frames. just very odd, and overly coincidental.

My ex-husband had family that lived in Indian River County, Florida. Things have no doubt changed since I was last there in 1988 but I don't think that much.

While there were no large cities in the area, the entire county is peppered with small towns. The overall population is 112,000 people.

I suspect that the reason Waters was drawn to Indian River County is that it is one of the 100 richest counties in the US. I think I recall he had a couple burglary convictions, so he was probably following the money.

When I looked up Martin County, the population is 148,000. It is not adjacent to Indian River County. While it isn't as wealthy as Indian River County, there's a fair amount of wealth there.
 
I must have missed something. Where do we have information that one of them confessed?

http://www.shutupandrun.net/2012/01/virtual-run-for-sherry-arnold-february.html

That blog is dated Jan 29. Poster claims to be Sherry's cousin. While interesting, I can't chalk the message up as "bonified". It may be an interpretation, it may be the Gospel. I can't consider it a puzzle piece until the information is confirmed by authorities. Pure speculation might be viewed as "strong speculation" after this information from a claimed relative. All this is IMHO, I need to add.
 
http://www.shutupandrun.net/2012/01/virtual-run-for-sherry-arnold-february.html

That blog is dated Jan 29. Poster claims to be Sherry's cousin. While interesting, I can't chalk the message up as "bonified". It may be an interpretation, it may be the Gospel. I can't consider it a puzzle piece until the information is confirmed by authorities. Pure speculation might be viewed as "strong speculation" after this information from a claimed relative. All this is IMHO, I need to add.


Thanks. Yes, I think we need to wait to hear what the prosecution and LE have to say. At this point they are still holding their cards very close. Charging in city court rather than district court is highly unusual. They must have some very good reasons for keeping a lid on the information.
 
I must have missed something. Where do we have information that one of them confessed?


"The article states: "Family members have been told that one of the men has confessed to killing Arnold, but they're still desperately waiting to hear how and why."
http://www.krtv.com/news/sherry-arnold-disappearance-investigation-featured-in-people-magazine/

But...

I thought I remembered I read the confession bit in People, but when I went back to link it here, the confession was no longer mentioned in the story. So, I did a Google search for "Sherry Arnold confession" and the results point to People mag as the one who said it first. But there is no longer any reference to it. Odd...
 
Bumpity bump


o/t bringing sherry to the top
 
Websleuths is pretty amazing, I have to completely stay out of FB discussions of the missing or I'd go nuts.
 
I can't speak for other posters here, but I never considered Gary Arnold a suspect in this case. I see nothing wrong with having questioned where he was when Sherry disappeared and trying to establish a timeline. Stranger abductions are extremely rare, particularly stranger abductions of adults. The cases on WS that bother me much more are the missing children cases because everyone seems to automatically assume the parents are guilty, mainly based on statistics. That troubles me. Cases like Lisa Irwin's trouble me particularly because her parents are raising 2 other children right now who may one day read the accusations against their parents and it will probably color their view of their parents even if one day they are cleared of all suspicion.
 
I can't speak for other posters here, but I never considered Gary Arnold a suspect in this case. I see nothing wrong with having questioned where he was when Sherry disappeared and trying to establish a timeline. Stranger abductions are extremely rare, particularly stranger abductions of adults. The cases on WS that bother me much more are the missing children cases because everyone seems to automatically assume the parents are guilty, mainly based on statistics. That troubles me. Cases like Lisa Irwin's trouble me particularly because her parents are raising 2 other children right now who may one day read the accusations against their parents and it will probably color their view of their parents even if one day they are cleared of all suspicion.

I didn't either, but for the most part I can understand where others are coming from in their analysis and appreciate it as part of our discussion. Like you said, stranger abductions are so rare.

And ITA with what you said about the cases involving children.
 
Do you guys think he would have taken her across the state line? I kinda think with his prior experience with corrections and law enforcement he wouldn't. But then, he was only running on a few brain cells that morning. If it was a quick impulsive crime, I think disposal would have been quick too. Which would mean she's not far North. Any road coming off the main highway that looked inviting, like a dirt road, unused, overgrown. i notice Frontage Rd dead ends at a river/stream before crossing state lines.
 
HFH,

In Montana, even if they didn't cross state lines, they would still be facing the DP right?

I've spent a lot of time thinking about it. I thought about them looking long and hard for somewhere out in the middle of no where so they could take there time at an abandoned property. But then would criminals want to spend any amount of time with evidence that puts the blame completely on their shoulders? Probably not.

I tend to go with the scenario that they found a natural dip in the landscape, covered her with sod and whatever else they could find. Hopefully animals have not found Sherry's remains. It does sound like many remains are found this way, indicating that many that are buried like this are not bothered by animals.

If there is some truth to what people are saying that Sherry could be found when the seasons change they don't have much longer to make a deal because I think that the prosecution is going to move forward with or w/out a body.

I hope they find Sherry soon though.
 
I am very bothered by the lack of information on any search efforts to locate Sherry. One thing that occurs to me is that by now, since she hasn't been found, if landowners have been contacted, and followed up with, I would start mixing things up a little. Like if the suspects said they went north, I would start looking south. If they said "shelter belt" I would think about looking in a gravel pit. I am not saying people should not be checking their properties, but I am beginning to be suspicious that the description is too vague, maybe deliberately so. Having driven for hours across the land, if someone asked me what I saw, I would say "homesteads, populated and abandoned, with shelter belts." If I wanted to hide a body and send people on a wild goose chase, I would say the same thing, because it makes sense. Given the vast landscape, I do not think it is unusual that she has not been found. I just think maybe the possibility of additional locations should be considered. Know how easy it is to drive into a landfill or gravel pit around these parts? It isn't that hard. Just a thought. I am curious if they had a map in their possession when the truck was found and what that showed. There are some Montana editions of atlases that are fairly detailed, and show things like side roads, small river drainages, etc. If they had a shovel, they might have had one of those as well.
 
I can't speak for other posters here, but I never considered Gary Arnold a suspect in this case. I see nothing wrong with having questioned where he was when Sherry disappeared and trying to establish a timeline. Stranger abductions are extremely rare, particularly stranger abductions of adults. The cases on WS that bother me much more are the missing children cases because everyone seems to automatically assume the parents are guilty, mainly based on statistics. That troubles me. Cases like Lisa Irwin's trouble me particularly because her parents are raising 2 other children right now who may one day read the accusations against their parents and it will probably color their view of their parents even if one day they are cleared of all suspicion.

Not trying to argue, but abductions/murders by someone outside the family are not all that rare, they do happen, we just don't hear about them unless the media picks up on it for whatever reason. As a matter of fact, there are so many cases we never hear about unless we live in that area. The media cannot possibly cover them all, they only hit a very small portion. Considering the circumstances of how Sherry went missing, I would say it would be a very long shot if her husband had anything to do with it. I could be wrong.
 
I am very bothered by the lack of information on any search efforts to locate Sherry. One thing that occurs to me is that by now, since she hasn't been found, if landowners have been contacted, and followed up with, I would start mixing things up a little. Like if the suspects said they went north, I would start looking south. If they said "shelter belt" I would think about looking in a gravel pit. I am not saying people should not be checking their properties, but I am beginning to be suspicious that the description is too vague, maybe deliberately so. Having driven for hours across the land, if someone asked me what I saw, I would say "homesteads, populated and abandoned, with shelter belts." If I wanted to hide a body and send people on a wild goose chase, I would say the same thing, because it makes sense. Given the vast landscape, I do not think it is unusual that she has not been found. I just think maybe the possibility of additional locations should be considered. Know how easy it is to drive into a landfill or gravel pit around these parts? It isn't that hard. Just a thought. I am curious if they had a map in their possession when the truck was found and what that showed. There are some Montana editions of atlases that are fairly detailed, and show things like side roads, small river drainages, etc. If they had a shovel, they might have had one of those as well.

It is disturbing that we aren't hearing any follow up on searching for Sherry. I'm pretty skeptical that LE is actually following up with landowners directly.
 
It is disturbing that we aren't hearing any follow up on searching for Sherry. I'm pretty skeptical that LE is actually following up with landowners directly.

There really isn't a need to contact people directly. I highly doubt that anyone could be found in northeastern Montana and northwestern North Dakota who is not acutely aware of Sherry's abduction. This has been the main topic of conversation everywhere you go for almost a month. People very much want her found.

Having said that, I will say that I will say that I find it very unusual that there appears to be a lack of urgency on the part of LE to find her. But I suspect that it is a matter of appearance rather than fact. I got out of LE work over 30 years ago and most of the people who I used to work with have retired or moved on. But some are still there and are now at the top of their departments. I know them to be very competent LEOs and I trust that they have very good reasons for doing what they are doing even though it seems to make no sense to us.
 
I think some posters here have been concerned that a number of landowners in that area are not year-round residents and, therefore, either are not aware of Sherry's disappearance or are aware, but unable to search their own land at this time. That's where it would be helpful to have LE contact the landowners to verify that they are aware of the search.
 
It is disturbing that we aren't hearing any follow up on searching for Sherry. I'm pretty skeptical that LE is actually following up with landowners directly.

I agree. I cannot stop thinking about ... people who were found because someone went an extra distance to find them. The investigator who had both information and a hunch and located Victoria Stafford in Canada on his day off, Roy Kronk who located Caylee Anthony a mere few blocks from her home, and Kristi Cornwells's brother who went on grid searches through the woods every free week-end he had. None of those were official searches carried out by the authorities. I get the "don't go looking and disturbing evidence" advice, but my guess is that the evidence is already disappearing all on its own. I am terrified of another outcome like the Caylee Anthony case, where the perpetrators come up with a ridiculous story and then there isn't enough physical evidence left to refute it.

If I were family, I would be pushing for action and the return of my loved one. I know people need to grieve in private, but I would be haunted until I knew exactly what happened, or as close as I could get, and that my wife/mother/sister was finally home, where she belongs. I do not doubt Sherry's family family loved her deeply, and absolutely no family should ever have to be in the position they are in. But it is precisely that love that shell-shocks us into disabling grief, and sometimes our innocence and inexperience, our lack of experience with criminal behavior, becomes a real disadvantage.
 
I think some posters here have been concerned that a number of landowners in that area are not year-round residents and, therefore, either are not aware of Sherry's disappearance or are aware, but unable to search their own land at this time. That's where it would be helpful to have LE contact the landowners to verify that they are aware of the search.

Land ownership is very complex. In regards to issuing a public request for people to check their property, asking "landowners" is much less cumbersome terminology than asking land owners, renters, leasees, etc. Yes, there are probably a lot of land owners who are not aware of the case. Much of the land is owned by people who have never seen the land or have never set foot in MT or ND. Some landowners have not seen their land in 30 or 40 years. Quite a bit of the land is owned by people who live in the Phoenix area, or on the West Coast.

As farmers and ranchers retire or pass away it is quite common for the land to remain in the family, even though the family members no longer live in the area. Much of that land has passed though a couple of generations since it was actually worked by an ancestor. The owner gets a property tax statement from the county once a year, and check from whoever is renting the land. Other than that, they have no connection to the property.

Most of the farm and ranch operations run from several thousand to twenty thousand acres. But a look at a township plat map shows a different picture of the land. When the land was homesteaded it was divided into 160 acre parcels, one half mile square. That is referred to as a "quarter." A quarter is 1/4 of a section of land. A section is 640 acres in a square, a mile on each side. A township consists of 36 sections, six miles by six miles.

The 160 acre homesteads were not large enough to support much of a family so so over the years many of the quarters were sold to neighbors and farms became larger. But some people kept their land and rented rather than sell. As people passed away, often land stayed in the family but was divided among the heirs, so 40 acre parcels are very common.

When I look at my township plat map I see that about 2/3 of the land is owned by people who do not farm or ranch that land. Some of the owners live in town 15 miles away. Many owners are scattered across the USA. They are the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of people who once lived in the area.

However the people who rent or lease that land care for it as if it is their own, and they will search it as if it were their own. As I mentioned in the previous thread, I own land about 200 miles form where I live. If there was a search being conducted of that area it would not be practical for me to go down there and search it myself. But I do know that my renter would search it, and since he has been renting it for the past 30 years he actually knows the land better than I do.

I hope this helps explain a little about rural land ownership and why making direct contact with each land owner is not necessary.
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
69
Guests online
744
Total visitors
813

Forum statistics

Threads
589,922
Messages
17,927,695
Members
228,002
Latest member
zipperoni
Back
Top