The Arkansas farmer accused of murdering and raping a nurse said during a mental health investigation that after killing the victim, he tried to “ mess around ” with her corpse – then went home, ate and ‘just tried to forget’.
The chilling confession of 28-year-old Quake Lewellyn is contained in an evaluation by a state psychologist who found that he is mentally fit to face the death of Sydney Sutherland, 25, who disappeared while jogging in August.
“It was all a blur,” Lewellyn told the psychologist, according to a report obtained by KARK.
The married stepfather of three claims he was driving on the day of the incident to check some wells and paddy fields when he saw Sutherland walking on a gravel road.
According to his story, he passed her, turned and hit her with his truck, unable to see her in a cloud of dust. He claims he walked up to her to see if she was okay and thought she was dead at the time.
Although he had not been drinking or taking drugs, he claims he was “scared and afraid that I would get into trouble for running her over.” Rather than calling the emergency number to get her help, he said he put her body in the tailgate of his truck to hide it.
His story then takes a truly depraved turn.
Lewellyn told the psychologist he drove to a paddy field to bury Sutherland, but stripped her clothes first and “tried to bother her a little bit” – although he said his lawyers advised him not to explain exactly what he was doing.
He dug a hole and buried Sutherland, continuing his day as if he hadn’t taken a life and abused a corpse, the evaluation says.
When he got back to work, he spent the next two to three hours checking wells, went home, ate dinner, and went to bed. “He reported that he hadn’t told anyone what had happened and was ‘just trying to forget,'” the psychologist wrote.
As news of Sutherland’s disappearance spread, Lewellyn’s father called him to ask if he had seen her and said he said he had seen her on the road. He went to the police station the next day to report the sighting – ‘still hoping he wouldn’t get caught,’ the report says – and finally decided to confess.
“I knew I didn’t kill her on purpose,” he told the evaluator. Asked why he didn’t just call the emergency center, he said, “I don’t know … I was just scared.”
Authorities have charged Lewellyn – who attended the same high school as Sutherland but claims he barely knew her – of capital murder, kidnapping, corpse abuse and rape.
His wife has filed for divorce since his arrest.