Naman Shrestha
Investigation Discovery’s ‘Born Evil: The Serial Killer and The Savior’ sheds light on Hadden Clark and the two killings for which he was convicted. In addition to that, he also confessed that he was involved in the murder of many other women, including Sarah Pryor. Since the show doesn’t go into the details of the case, the viewers are bound to have certain questions regarding her murder, such as the identity of the perpetrator and the aftermath.
Sarah Pryor Never Returned From Her Walk and Her Remains Were Found Nearly 10 Years Later
Sarah Elizabeth Pryor entered the lives of Barbara Pryor and Andrew Pryor on January 13, 1976, in Pennsylvania, as a bundle of joy. She, her brother, and her sister Meg grew up together in a seemingly loving household, all three being each other’s support systems. Sarah was described as a happy-go-lucky child whose family meant the world to her. Having spent most of her years living in McMurray, Pennsylvania, her family relocated to the town of Wayland in Massachusetts around September 1985. Six weeks after the move, while they were still settling into their new house, nine-year-old Sarah went for a walk to explore the new neighborhood on October 9, 1985.
Putting on her headphones, Sarah roamed around Concord Road but, unfortunately, didn’t make it back home. Her sudden disappearance was a cause for concern as her family didn’t want their worst nightmares to turn into reality. Reports suggested that while she was walking along a quiet street near her house, she was kidnapped. In order to find the missing girl and reunite her with her family, hundreds of volunteers joined the authorities in the search. Almost a decade later, in 1985, a bone fragment of a human skull was discovered by a man walking his dog in a wooded area in Wayland, a couple of miles away from the Pryor residence.
After conducting various tests on the bone fragment through the new DNA technology, it was identified as Sarah Pryor’s remains in 1998. By that time, her parents had been separated and needed some time to grieve the loss of their enthusiastic daughter. On what would have been her 22nd birthday, January 13, 1998, Sarah’s funeral was held. Meanwhile, the authorities still continued looking for the perpetrator responsible for the 1985 murder of the nine-year-old girl.
A Killer on Parole Was Linked to the Killing of Sarah Pryor
After the Pryor family reported Sarah Pryor missing, the police began looking for any sort of clue and evidence to get to the bottom of the case. During their investigation, they suspected foul play from a convicted killer on parole, John Whirty, who tried to abduct a young girl at knifepoint from a neighborhood close to the Pryor residence. After being accused of attacking a 12-year-old girl in Sherborn, he moved to Texas and then to Dallas, where he sexually assaulted and killed 15-year-old Rose Marie Martin. After serving 17 years in prison for the crime, he was out on parole by 1984.
When the detectives brought him in for questioning and asked about his whereabouts on the day of Sarah’s disappearance, he seemed to have been near the area where she was last seen, according to several witnesses. However, they could not charge him due to lack of evidence, despite his history of abuse against women and his lack of a solid alibi. Later, in 1986, John ended up getting convicted of murder in Texas and began serving his original prison sentence. In order to keep the prime suspect behind bars, the loved ones of Sarah Pryor fought against his parole every few years.
Another Potential Suspect Emerged in the Murder Investigation of Sarah Pryor
At the time of Sarah Pryor’s disappearance, Hadden Clark’s parents used to live near Wayland. So, in a desperate attempt to find more clues in the case, they tried checking if Hadden, who was convicted for murdering Michele Dorr and Laura Houghteling, was involved in her disappearance and murder by showing him a picture of the 9-year-old missing girl. He did not claim her as one of his many alleged victims, giving the police enough reasons to believe that he had no hand in the murder. However, in 2000, Hadden opened up and told the New Yorker that she saw a beautiful girl in Provincetown and “went into one of my episodes.”
Despite him openly confessing that he was responsible for the murder of Sarah Pryor of Wayland in 1985, several detectives and the victim’s family doubted his story. He claimed that he killed her after luring her into his car on the fateful day. Moreover, he allegedly put the body in a plastic bag and disposed of her head in the field, where the skull fragments were discovered. On the other hand, Andrew Pryor, Sarah’s father, told The Associated Press, “I have to go with what I am told by police. From everything I’ve been told, they have investigated and spent a lot of time with him and had no success finding anything. It sounds like the police are right. ”
However, the authorities accompanied the convicted killer to Massachusetts and looked for the remains, which he claimed he buried behind his grandfather’s residence. While they failed to find any traces of a body, they did excavate a bucket filled with jewelry. With suspicions still looming over John Whirty, Sarah’s family and friends were highly disappointed when they found out that he had passed away in prison of natural causes. Thus, the murder case of Sarah Pryor still remains a mystery to this day, with nobody charged for her killing.
Read More: Hadden Clark: Where is the Suspected Serial Killer Now?
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