Andry found guilty in Birdseye murder case

An Eckerty woman, Sarah Andry, was convicted of aiding murder and aggravated battery after a trial last week in the Dubois County Circuit Court.

Andry was accused of aiding in the death of her fiancé, Darin Atkins. The investigation into Atkins’s death began on July 19, 2017, when Dubois County dispatch received a 911 call from Andry advising that she had found Darin Atkins deceased at his residence located at 3543 S. Harts Gravel Road in Birdseye.

Andry told dispatch it appeared Atkins had been beaten with a bat. Police and medical personnel responded to the scene and confirmed the violent death of Atkins.

During the investigation, officers interviewed Andry multiple times and investigators recovered extensive digital evidence, including information from the cell phones of Andry and other witnesses, and video and location information from businesses and other buildings near the crime scene.

In her interviews, Andry gave multiple varying accounts of what occurred, and her accounts differed from facts established with the digital and video evidence.

Investigators also interviewed Jason Atkins, who was in a relationship with Andry, on multiple occasions. Atkins eventually told investigators he and Andry went to the victim’s residence on the morning of July 19, 2017. When they arrived, Andry went into the residence first and Jason followed a few minutes later. He told investigators while there he got into a confrontation with the victim and struck him once in the head with a baseball bat. Jason also stated that Andry took the bat and struck the victim twice more before they left the residence.

Pathologist, Dr. James Jacobi, determined that the manner of death was a homicide, and the cause of death of Mr. Atkins was multiple blunt force injuries to the head.

During one of the interviews police conducted with Andry, they left her in the interview room alone for a few minutes with the video recording equipment still running. On the recording, Andry can be heard saying, “my God, what have I d….”

Dubois County Prosecutor, Anthony Quinn, was pleased his office was able to secure a conviction in this case.

“Everyone on our team worked hard to bring justice to the victim in this case. In particular, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Beth Sermersheim did an outstanding job at trial,” he said. “I also want to thank the investigators who put countless hours into untangling the various stories and matching that with the digital evidence we had. Investigator Rick Chambers, Sheriff Tom Kleinhelter (the lead investigator at the time) and Indiana State Police Detective Brock Werne are to be commended for their efforts.

Andry will now face sentencing on the aiding murder and aggravated battery felony convictions. The sentencing range for aiding murder is 45 to 65 years, and the sentencing range for aggravated battery is three to 16 years.

Sentencing is expected to take place on October 23, 2020, at 1:00 PM in the Dubois Circuit Court.

Jason Atkins plead guilty to murder and was sentenced to 45 years in the Indiana Department of Corrections. The first 25 years of the sentence is to be executed with the remaining 20 years suspended to supervised probation. The court also ruled the last five years of Atkins’ executed sentence can be served on home detention with electronic monitoring.