MANCHESTER, Vt. (AP) - The man charged with strangling a golf professional in 1986 has been ordered back to Vermont to face trial but can still request a review of a California judge’s decision to extradite him.
The extradition of David Allan Morrison, who was suspected of Sarah Hunter’s killing for more than two decades before he was charged in 2012, was ordered by a judge this week, The Rutland Herald (https://bit.ly/1mFpQ6l) reported.
Morrison, 54, is charged with first-degree aggravated murder in Hunter’s death. Hunter, 36, of Manchester, disappeared in September 1986 and her body, strangled and sexually assaulted, was found two months later.
When Morrison was charged two years ago, authorities said he had been a top suspect immediately after Hunter’s death but investigators couldn’t find the necessary evidence to bring charges. He was finally charged after police said hair found in his car was compared to DNA from Hunter’s sister.
Morrison left Vermont in 1988 but was arrested later that year in California. He eventually pleaded guilty to charges of attempted murder, sexual assault and kidnapping in a case in Chula Vista, Calif.
Authorities had expected it to take only a few months for Morrison to be returned to Vermont after being charged in Hunter’s death, but he refused to sign an extradition waiver. Morrison will have 30 days to request a review of the judge’s extradition order.
“It was a dark cloud over the community of Manchester because there have been very few homicides in or around the Manchester area to begin with,” Bennington County State’s Attorney Erica Marthage said.
Marthage said it was important the case move forward.
“I think her family has a right to have that kind of closure,” Marthage said. “I think the community does as well.”
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