Advertisement

Trial opens in 1975 Vandy coed's slaying

NASHVILLE, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- The brother of a Nashville college student testified Wednesday about finding his 19-year-old sister dead in her apartment in 1975.

Dr. Roger Des Prez of Tulsa, Okla., testified in the opening day of testimony in the murder trial of Jerome Barrett, 61, who was charged in the death of Sarah Des Prez after a DNA test in 2007.

Advertisement

Des Prez said he and his father found Sarah, a student at Vanderbilt University, in her bed with discolorations on her face, The (Nashville) Tennessean reported.

"My father briefly tried to get her breathing again, checked her pulse and asked me to call the police," said Des Prez.

Defense attorney G. Kerry Haymaker said in his opening statement that the cause of Des Prez's death was never established.

Barret, who served 25 years in prison for rape has also been linked to the notorious cold-case slaying of Marcia Trimble, a 9-year-old Girl Scout who was strangled in 1975 while out delivering cookies to her customers.

A former Nashville jail inmate testified at a pretrial hearing Tuesday Barrett told him he had killed four people over the course of his criminal career.

Advertisement

Latest Headlines