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It was summer in Arkansas in 2020 when 24-year-old Sydney Sutherland was getting back into the swing of reality as her Florida family vacation came to an end. She took advantage of her day off to get settled, unpacked & gear back into her workout routine. Sydney was a lover of exercise & running was part of her near-daily routine. However, what started as an ordinary day ended in tragedy. As she laced up her running shoes & headed out the door on Wednesday, August 19, 2020, she sadly never returned home.
According to her obituary, Sydney was born on September 18, 1995 to parents Dion & Maggy Sutherland & she & her two older brothers, Tyler & Sam, grew up on a farm in Grubbs, Arkansas. During her time at Tuckerman High School, her magnetic, warm, bubbly personality always drew a large group of friends around her. Sydney’s senior quote was, The meaning of life is to find your gift, the purpose of life is to give it away. Throughout her twenty-four short years on this earth, she was a gift to many.
Growing up in the small community of Grubbs meant that most of the 300 residents knew one another & grew to be very tight-knit. It was the type of town where families had lived for generations, doors were left unlocked & children played freely in the streets as crime was virtually non-existent.
In July 2018 Sydney earned her LPN license at ASU Newport & in December 2019 she became a registered nurse, graduating from the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville. She worked as an LPN in conjunction completing her coursework to become an RN. Sydney’s compassionate nature & genuine spirit was a perfect fit for the field of nursing & she endeared all who met her.
In 2020, despite working in the healthcare field during the uncertainty of the pandemic, Sydney was thriving as a nurse at Unity Health Harris Medical Center in Newport. She was exceptionally close with her family & always maintained a sunny disposition while caring for her patients at the hospital on the medical/surgical unit where she worked.
Since high school graduation, Sydney had been in a relationship with her boyfriend, Alex Nicholson & in 2020, they shared a home with their dogs. As their four-year anniversary was approaching, they began discussing their future which included marriage & a family.
When she wasn’t busy caring for patients at work, Sydney was working out, shopping & spending time with her nieces who knew her as Aunt Sassy.
Not only did she hit the gym most days of the week where she met up with a personal trainer for intense workout sessions, but she also ran through the peaceful countryside of her landscape in Arkansas most days of the week. Exercise was not only important to Sydney to maintain her physical health, but also help her mentally clear her head from the emotional demands of working within the healthcare industry.
Sydney & her family had only just come back from a wonderful vacation in Destin, Florida late Tuesday night, August 18, one day before Sydney vanished from her run. As fun as it was to be away, enjoying the beach while connecting with family, Sydney was grateful to be getting back into the swing of her usual daily routines. Since the group was back in Arkansas late Tuesday night, they basically just dropped their bags & went to bed.
On Wednesday, August 19, 2020, Sydney hit the ground running & started her day with a session with her trainer at the gym in Jonesboro where she worked out for an hour. When she was back home, she started to get herself settled back at home from her trip which included unpacking her suitcase & getting things back in order to prepare herself to get back to work.
Images from her brother Sam’s Ring doorbell captured Sydney’s last image while she was unloading items from the back of her white SUV. She wore her blond hair in a low ponytail, a white athletic tank top, black shorts with pink running shoes.
Sydney stopped off at her mom’s house where they chatted about their day & Sydney mentioned that she might bake some brownies or cookies, but she did also want to go for a run. Maggy was very well aware that Sydney demanded a lot of herself & worried that her daughter was overdoing it & working too hard & reminded her, Don’t push yourself too hard. However, since it was a gorgeous day, she wanted to be sure to get her run regardless of her strenuous workout at the gym earlier that day.
As she left her mom’s house, both Sydney & Maggy each expressed their love for the other & said they would talk soon. Maggy, of course, had no way of knowing that she would never see nor talk to her daughter ever again.
Now back at home, Sydney set up her Apple Watch so she could track her run & headed out the door somewhere between 2-2:30 pm.
After she left, she sent Alex a picture of the gravel road with no text attached so he knew she was out on her run while he was at work. As the afternoon wore on, Alex called her, but she didn’t answer & multiple texts went unanswered. He got off work at 5 pm & as he pulled into the driveway, he saw Sydney’s car while her keys & wallet were in their usual spot on the countertop inside.
Sydney took her typical route & started her run along State Highway 18 between Newport & Grubbs, a rural stretch of road that she knew like the back of her hand. The Arkansas countryside she called home consisted of open land with scattered farmhouses with little traffic that consisted of mostly local residents & an occasional delivery van or truck.
Since hours had passed since Sydney set out, Alex was growing very concerned by this point so he went out & drove along the farms where Sydney typically ran, but there was no sign of her. He continued to call & text her, his worry growing with each missed call & each unanswered text. When he called Maggy, she also hadn’t heard from her daughter.
As five hours had gone by since Sydney left for her run, a missing person’s report was filed with the Jackson County Arkansas Sheriff’s Department at 7 pm. Since she was always very scheduled, prompt & communicative with her friends & family, the Sutherland family were panicked by this time & gathered at her house, knowing in their hearts that something was wrong.
Investigators were aware that Sydney hadn’t opened a Snapchat that her friend sent her at 2:41 pm so they theorized that it was likely around this time when she vanished.
Since the area of Grubbs is so rural & surrounded by farms & open fields, there were no CCTV cameras to capture her movements. Investigators started their search at her home & worked outwards in a perimeter of the area in hopes of finding her, searching until night fell & it got too dark to go on. However, those closest to Sydney continued the search through the night, refusing to give up & unable to sleep.
By the following day, Thursday, August 20, investigators had spoken with local residents & farmers. Being such a tight-knit community, Sheriff David Lucas had watched Sydney grow up & personally knew the Sutherland family very well; it was clear this was an urgent situation since she was such a responsible person & there was no doubt that something terrible must have happened to Sydney.
Seeing the news coverage of her search, a female UPS driver reached out to investigators & reported seeing Sydney sometime between 2:30-3 pm jogging along the highway on Wednesday, something she clearly remembered because she had to slow her speed tremendously so the gravel wouldn’t kick up at Sydney. She was running at a steady pace at the time & seemed to be in no distress whatsoever. Because the UPS driver had a GPS tracker in her truck, she was immediately cleared as a suspect.
A local farmer, 28-year-old Quake Lewellyn, spoke with investigators & confirmed that he’d also driven by Sydney while she was out running at about 2:45 pm on County Road 41, right within the window of when she likely went missing. Sydney’s brother Sam had spoken with a friend who talked to Quake who said he saw Sydney running on the overpass in the direction of her house.
Quake had gone to the same high school as Sydney & graduated three years before her; they weren’t friends, but knew of one another. He told investigators that after he passed her, he spent 20-25 minutes at a local water pump & on his way back, he didn’t see her again.
Friday, the following morning, Quake joined hundreds of community members alongside law enforcement in a search party with the hope of finding Sydney alive & unharmed. He also joined a Facebook group dedicated to finding her.
According to Maggy, when Quake met up with the search group, she noticed him lingering near a tree so she approached him for information since he was likely one of the last people to see her daughter before she vanished. He said that when he saw her, nothing was out of the ordinary & she was just running down the road. He gave Maggy a quick hug & she walked away feeling uneasy.
As investigators continued to speak with area residents about who they thought could potentially be capable of doing something to Sydney, Quake’s name came up time & time again. Although he had no prior criminal history, many described him as odd, strange, weird, kinda shady, not very nice, socially awkward, somewhat quiet. Someone mentioned a time they were driving with him when they came upon a dead fox in the road; Quake climbed out of the car, approached the carcass, cut a piece of meat off the animal & said it tasted good.
Investigators worked with AT&T, who Sydney utilized for her cell phone service, to search for last known signals on her phone & Apple Watch. Since the area is so vast & rural, it lacked a lot of cell phone towers which made investigators feel as if they were searching for a needle in a haystack.
When Apple got back to investigators, they were able to give them a latitude & longitude of the last known location of Sydney’s phone & searchers were sent to this area on Jackson 41. It was here, they found her phone on Thursday afternoon 1.3 miles from her home next to a rice field; there was no damage to the device & it was still powered on.
Investigators used a forensic tool to search Sydney’s phone & noticed that an Apple book had been playing but was placed on pause. Investigators wondered if maybe someone who Sydney knew pulled up to her during her run which prompted her to pause her book.
As investigators began further speaking with Quake Lewllyn as a person of interest, he came down to the station on Friday & his story remained consistent. Yes, he saw Sydney, but he had nothing to do with her disappearance.
But in the meantime, evidence began to stack up against him. When his truck was searched, they noted blood inside the cracks of the tailgate.
While Quake continued to speak with investigators, his dad, Michael, gave consent to search his son’s phone & elaborated that Quake’s wife previously installed Life360 on his phone to track the family’s locations. With this, investigators were able to see that on Wednesday, the day that Sydney vanished, Quake was traveling north on 41 when he suddenly stopped & headed back south as he crossed the highway at US 67. He remained stopped for eight minutes in the very location where Sydney’s phone was located.
When faced with this damning, black & white evidence, Quake denied ever stopping on 41 & insisted the factual data was lying. The Life360 app showed that after he stopped for 8 minutes, he turned around once again & began traveling at a high rate of speed which made investigators wonder if he kidnapped Sydney. He traveled two miles to an area near a wood line where he remained for about 30 minutes.
With this information, investigators & cadaver dogs were sent to the area in question & sadly, this was where Sydney’s remains were located in a shallow grave in a rice field. She was nude with her shirt pulled up over her face & investigators noted her extensive facial injuries.
The medical examiner determined she’d died as a result of multiple blunt force injuries which was consistent with being struck by a vehicle.
With the solid evidence of the blood found on his truck which was consistent with Sydney’s injuries as well as the evidence from his Life360 app in relation to where not only Sydney’s phone was located, but also her remains, officers knew that Quake was guilty, but they still wanted a confession. Now faced with the knowledge that her remains were found, he knew he was cornered & quickly confessed.
According to Quake, while he was out driving on Wednesday afternoon along the gravel portion of Jackson County Road 41 on his way to check the wells & the rice fields, he drove past Sydney who was walking down the road. As he passed her, he turned his pick-up truck around & realized he could no longer see her. He believed she may have crossed to the other side of the road & claimed that the dust from the gravel still hung in the air. As he continued on he said he accidentally struck her with the front driver’s side of his pick-up truck.
Because Sydney was found without clothing, investigators clearly knew there was more to this story.
According to Quake, he got out of his truck & asked her if she was okay, but she didn’t respond & he believed she was dead. Rather than calling for help, he loaded her body into the bed of his truck & transported her to the rice field where he’d been headed. Once there, he positioned her body at the edge of his tailgate, removed her clothing & attempted to have sex with her. We went on to say, I gave up on it & I put her in the hole & buried her. After he dug a hole with a shovel he had in his truck, he buried her there in a shallow grave in the rice field.
Only ten minutes after Quake said he accidentally hit Sydney, he was in the process of raping her; investigators knew his story was a lie & Sydney’s death hadn’t been an accident at all.
Quake said he didn’t call for help because he was afraid he would be in trouble for running her over. After he buried Sydney’s body, he went back to work as if nothing was wrong & began checking the wells until 5 or 6 pm. When he was done, he headed home, ate dinner & went to bed. He didn’t tell anyone what happened & tried to forget about it. When his dad called him that night & asked if he’d seen Sydney while he was out & about, he confirmed that he had, but said nothing further.
According to Quake, Wednesday had been a normal day up until the point he hit Sydney with his truck; he wasn’t feeling stressed or different. On Thursday he went to work as usual & briefly spoke with an officer on the phone where he was cooperative & joined the search party for Sydney. Since he was likely one of the last people to see Sydney alive, he & his father went to the police station on Friday, but at this point, he was still hoping he wouldn’t be caught.
He said that when he struck her with his truck, it was all just a blur. He denied being under the influence of any drugs, alcohol or prescribed medications that day. There was also surveillance video from a farm shop that was taken on Thursday, the day after Sydney went missing. Quake could be seen looking at the front dent on the hood of his truck, something that his wife confirmed hadn’t been there before. He hit Sydney with such force from behind which caused her head to snap back, thus breaking her neck.
Police located Sydney’s Apple Watch not far from where her phone had been found, but unlike her phone which was undamaged, her watch had been shattered.
He was arrested that day for kidnapping, rape, capital murder & abuse of a corpse.
Quake Lewellyn grew up working on his family farm alongside his dad; he got married at 25-years-old to a local woman named Gracie, who had three children from a previous relationship & began living with his wife & step-children. In 2020 the family moved in with his parents so they could save money to build their own home.
The psychiatrist who did Quake’s mental evaluation on January 7, 2021 determined that he was not experiencing any mental diseases or disorders. He had been a rational man at the time who was maintaining his own farm. Since he indicated he’d placed Sydney’s body in the back of his truck so it wouldn’t be seen & he wouldn’t be in trouble, proved that he knew his actions could result in legal consequences.
On October 1, 2021, Quake Lewellyn pleaded guilty to the rape & murder of Sydney Sutherland while prosecutors dropped the charges of kidnapping & abuse of a corpse when they accepted his plea of guilty. With this, he waived his right to a jury which allowed him to avoid being sentenced to death. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Sydney’s mom, Maggy, was given the opportunity to address Quake in an impact statement. She said, You treated her like nothing but she was everything to me. You didn’t just kill Sydney that day, something in me died too. She spoke about how he took everything away; they would never get to see Sydney walk down the aisle or have children. Sydney’s father, Dion, called Quake a 300 pound coward who hit their 100# daughter with a 3,000# truck.
On August 26, 2020, five days after his arrest, Quake’s wife, Gracie, filed for divorce. Her divorce was granted & her maiden name was restored.
Sydney was laid to rest at Greenhaw Cemetery. Arkansas State University at Newport went on to create a scholarship fund in her honor called the Sydney Sutherland Memorial Scholarship which is applicable for students pursuing education within the healthcare field.
A large pink cross was erected at the site where Sydney lost her life as well as at the cemetery in honor of her favorite color, while people within the community illuminate their homes with pink lights to keep her memory alive.
The annual Finish Sydney’s Run 5k was also created in 2020 in her honor since she was denied that opportunity when she set out for her typical run on what began as a normal Wednesday in August. All proceeds from the run go directly to the Sydney Claire Sutherland Foundation.
Sydney’s death is a reminder that monsters can be hiding in plain sight, even in the most trusted, tight-knit communities. It proves that we never truly know what’s going on inside of someone else. It also highlights the challenges women face while exercising outside alone; when Sydney headed out the door that day, she would have never imagined she’d be taking her final run.
References:
- Scribd: Quake Lewellyn Criminal Responsibility Evaluation Report
- Odd Murders & Mysteries: The murder of Sydney Sutherland
- Jackson’s Funeral Home: Sydney Claire Sutherland
- Race Roster: Finish Sydney’s Run 5k
- Fox 16: Arkansas Crime Watch: Exclusive interview with Sydney Sutherland’s family
- Independent: Sydney Sutherland: Farmer jailed for murdering missing nurse after he joined search to find her
- IMDB: Witness to Murder: Digital Evidence
- Medium: Silent Stalker: The rural Arkansas runner who never made it home
