Sarah Buzzard is a killer from Indiana who was convicted of the murder of Ryan Zimmerman
According to court documents Sarah Buzzard believed that Ryan Zimmerman had messed up her marriage to her husband. Apparently the husband convinced Ryan to move in with them to explore his sexual side. Naria Jenna Whitaker was already living with the couple
The body of Ryan Zimmerman had been found in Ohio where he had been dismembered, parts of his body have never been found, by a passing hiker.
Sarah Buzzard and her husband would soon get a divorce and Buzzard rebounded by marrying Naria Jenna Whitaker soon after
The evidence would lead them to the home of Naria Jenna Whitaker and Sarah Buzzard. When officers attempted to serve an arrest warrant on Whitaker, who police believed helped Buzzard murder Zimmerman, she would pull out a gun and take her own life. Buzzard was taken into custody
Sarah Buzzard would admit to the murder of Ryan Zimmerman. She would tell police after her husband had left the house she would knock down Zimmerman and strangle him. Whitaker apparently helped her dismantle the body.
Sarah Buzzard would be convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for thirty years
Sarah Buzzard Now
Number W108657
DOB 08/22/1991
Gender Female
Race Asian
Admission Date 02/01/2022
Institution Ohio Reformatory for Women
Status INCARCERATED
Next Parole Board Hearing/Review Month July 2051
Sarah Buzzard Case
The Marion woman arrested in the killing and dismemberment of a Columbus, Ohio, man has been sentenced.
Sarah E. Buzzard was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 30 years in the slaying of Ryan Zimmerman, whose remains were found in West Bank State Park off U.S. 127 in Mercer County, Ohio, in January 2016, sawed apart.
Buzzard pleaded guilty to one count of Aggravated Murder last week in Mercer County Common Pleas Court.
BACKGROUND:
The case began to unfold in January 2016, a person walking a dog found what turned out to be human remains in West Bank State Park off U.S. 127.
In June of 2020, the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office announced a forensic anthropologist using DNA positively identified those remains as the 21-year old Zimmerman. Some of his remains have never been found.
Based on forensic evidence, investigators determined Zimmerman was originally from Corbin, Kentucky. They spoke with his parents and learned Zimmerman had moved to Columbus in the months before his death. He had moved in with Sarah Buzzard and her ex-husband, who he had met on social media.
Investigators served numerous search warrants on various tech companies, specifically social media firms.
Based on information gained from those warrants, detectives were able to hone in on where Zimmerman was killed and they contacted the Columbus, Ohio Police Department for assistance in the case. Detectives then established that possible suspects lived in Marion, Indiana, and were able to find out exactly where the killing and dismemberment took place.
Next, investigators found the car that had been used to transport Zimmerman’s remains from Columbus to Mercer County where they were dumped. It had been sold and detectives made contact with the new owner who willingly cooperated with them.
Investigators eventually gathered enough evidence to issue arrest warrants, and went to take Buzzard into custody. When detectives served the search warrant on Buzzard’s wife, Naria Jenna Whitaker pulled a handgun from her purse and shot herself dead in front of five police officers.
Buzzard was jailed on 18 charges including two counts of Murder, four counts of Tampering with Evidence, and misdemeanor and felony Abuse of a Corpse.
Her guilty plea agreement dismissed all other charges.
https://www.wane.com/news/crime/marion-woman-sentenced-to-life-in-killing-dismemberment-case