Details Emerge in Portland Slaying Case

More details are emerging about the slaying of an 18-year-old woman whose body was found in a burning Portland apartment Monday. The sister of the victim, Zoe Sarnacki, told WGME-TV that Chad Gurney, 27, who's charged with murder and arson in the case, killed Sarnacki then mutilated her body before setting it on fire.

The Portland Press Herald reports that Gurney was the victim of a "horrendous" car accident four years ago. According to the paper, Gurney, a standout lacrosse player at Oak Hill High School, was on his way to a game when the van he was riding in collided with a tractor-trailer. He was severely injured, nearly losing a leg, and received a large settlement.

Gurney used the money to travel, the paper reports, and he was scheduled to fly to Thailand yesterday.

Instead, Gurney was in court, where he entered no plea. Friends described Sarnacki as "cheerful, gentle and in love with the world," the Press Herald says. She dropped out of Deering High School some months ago. Had she stayed, she would have graduated this spring.

- MPBN TV News (Portland, Maine, USA) / 2009-05-28

The murdered victim:

Zoe Sarnacki

The accused murderer:

Chad Gurney (right) in court with his attorney

Victim's Sister Gives Gruesome Details of Killing

PORTLAND (NEWS CENTER) -- The older sister of Zoe Sarnacki says she wants people to know what Chad Gurney, the man accused of killing Sarnacki, is capable of. So she is making public gruesome details of the murder.

18-year-old Sarnacki's body was found Monday night in Gurney's Portland apartment after crews were called in to a fire there.

Kristin Kosnow says a Portland Police detective told her Gurney confessed to the killing, saying, " He had strangled her until she was dead ... went into the kitchen and got knives and cut her head off. He then went and bought gas and set her on fire."

Kosnow says the detective gave the family the grim details because many stories were circulating and they wanted the family to know what really happened.

The Sarnacki family is pursuing a civil lawsuit against Gurney. In 2005 he was injured in an accident involving two school vans while attending Liberty University in Virginia. He was awarded a settlement described by his lawyer in that case as, "substantial."

Portland attorney Dan Lilley is representing the Sarnackis in their civil suit to seize that money and any other assets Gurney may have and to ensure there is a public trial since Gurney reportedly confessed.

"Often time if that's the case and it's open and shut there's a plea - there's not a trial," says Lilley. "But that wouldn't prevent a civil case from going forward with a trial. So that the entire set of circumstances including the defendent testifying might come to bear."

Gurney did not enter a plea when he made his initial court appearance yesterday.

On Monday night, friends will hold a candlelight vigil for Zoe Sarnacki at 6 PM at 463 Cumberland Avenue in Portland outside Gurney's apartment where Sarnacki's body was found.

- WCSH TV News (Maine, USA) / 2009-09-28

Edited May 28, 200917 yr by sriracha john

Chad Gurney appears in Cumberland County Superior Court for arraignment on murder and arson charges for the killing of 18 year-old Zoe Sarnacki in Portland, Maine.

Associated Press

This thread has nothing at all to do with Thailand.