‘JUST A BLUR’

Arkansas Farmer: ‘I Just Tried to Forget’ About Killing and Molesting Nurse

Quake Lewellyn told a psychologist he went back to work, then ate dinner at home after the alleged rape and murder of Sydney Sutherland.

The Arkansas farmer charged with murdering and raping a nurse said during a mental-health exam that after he killed the victim he tried “messing with” her corpse—then went home, ate dinner, and “just tried to forget about it.”

The chilling confession by Quake Lewellyn, 28, is contained in an evaluation by a state psychologist who found that he is mentally fit to stand trial for the death of Sydney Sutherland, 25, who vanished while jogging in August.

“It was all just a blur,” Lewellyn told the psychologist, according to a report obtained by KARK.

The married stepfather of three claims that on the day of the incident, he was driving to check some wells and rice fields when he spotted Sutherland walking down a gravel road.

By his account, he drove past her, turned around, and struck her with his truck, unable to see her in a cloud of dust. He claims he walked over to see if she was OK and believed she was dead at that point.

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Although he had not been drinking or using any drugs, he claims that he was “scared and afraid I was gonna be in trouble for running her over.” Instead of calling 911 to get her help, he said he put her body in the tailgate of his truck with an eye toward hiding it.

His narrative then takes a truly depraved turn.

Lewellyn told the psychologist that he drove to a rice field to bury Sutherland but first undressed her and “tried messing with her a bit”—though he said his attorneys advised him not to explain exactly what he did.

He dug a hole and buried Sutherland, then went on with his day as though he had not taken a life and abused a corpse, the evaluation says.

Returning to work, he spent the next two to three hours checking wells, went home, ate supper, and went to bed. “He reported that he did not tell anyone what happened and ‘just tried to forget about it,’” the psychologist wrote.

As news of Sutherland’s disappearance spread, Lewellyn’s father called him to ask if he had seen her and he said he said he saw her on the road. He went to the police station the next day to report the sighting—“still hoping he would not be caught,” the report says—and eventually decided to confess.

“I knew I didn’t kill her on purpose,” he told the evaluator. Asked why he did not just called 911, he said, “That I don’t know... I was just scared.”

Authorities have charged Lewellyn—who went to the same high school as Sutherland but claims he barely knew her—with capital murder, kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, and rape.

His wife has filed for divorce since his arrest.

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