True Crime Chronicles: Inmate that was never getting out of jail anyway pleaded guilty to 21-year-old murder

On January 20, 1991, 19-year-old Sabrina Underwood stood on the roadside near Bear Creek in Boone County hoping to hitch a ride to Calico Rock.

Her mother, Loretta, had dropped her off that morning, unaware it would be the last time she’d see her daughter alive. Sabrina was headed to visit her boyfriend at the North Central Unit prison—a trip she had made the week before without incident.

But when the boyfriend called the family home later that day to ask why Sabrina hadn’t arrived, alarm bells rang. Loretta reported her missing, and a search began.

Nearly three months later, on April 8, two turkey hunters stumbled upon a bundle of clothing near Gum Springs Cemetery in Fulton County.

Human remains were found nearby and later identified as Sabrina’s. Her cause of death was ruled “undetermined,” and despite a full investigation, the case eventually went cold.

That changed in July 2022, when Arkansas State Police received a tip from an attorney representing an inmate at the Varner Maximum Security Unit. The inmate claimed that fellow prisoner Rick Allen Headley had confessed to the killing. Investigators interviewed Headley, who not only admitted to the murder but provided chilling details that had never been made public.

According to the affidavit, Headley said he picked up Sabrina in Bellefonte and claimed she attempted to extort him for money. He told investigators he “knew he couldn’t let her ruin his life.” He described how he drove her to a secluded cemetery, had sex with her, and then brutally murdered her using a “Rambo-style” knife.

He decapitated her, disposed of the weapon and his bloodied clothes, and returned home to Mountain Home, Arkansas. He later confessed, “You never forget the person if you’ve ever killed someone.”

At the time of his confession, Headley was already serving a life sentence without parole for the 2018 murder of his estranged wife, Kirstie Headley. In October 2023, he was formally charged with Sabrina’s murder. On December 11, 2023, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Fulton County Circuit Court and was sentenced to 40 additional years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.

Colonel Mike Hagar of the Arkansas State Police said, “We will never give up on finding justice for families like the Underwoods, who still suffer the pain of Sabrina’s absence. Today, we pray for peace for those who remember and love Sabrina.”

After 32 years, the Underwood family finally has answers—and justice.