A former US Army soldier celebrated his 21st birthday with friends before returning home and fatally shooting his wife after she confronted him about cheating, a court heard.
Zarrius Hildabrand, now 24, killed his wife, Saria Hildabrand, on August 6, 2023, then hid her body in a storm drain near their Anchorage, Alaska, apartment.
The killing took place only hours after the newlyweds had gone out drinking with friends to mark Hildabrand’s milestone birthday, prosecutors said.
After they returned home, Saria, a combat medic, reportedly found messages on her husband’s phone indicating that he had been unfaithful.
Prosecutors said Hildabrand responded by shooting her once in the head with a 9mm handgun, leaving her dead inside the apartment.
Instead of calling for help, he began an extensive cover-up. He bought cleaning products, placed his wife’s body in a large wheeled garbage bin and dumped her in an underground drainage system.
He then reported Saria missing and joined her grieving relatives, fellow soldiers and police in searching for the woman he already knew was dead.
An Anchorage jury convicted Hildabrand in June of second-degree murder and two counts of tampering with physical evidence. He was acquitted of the more serious first-degree murder charge.
On Friday, a judge sentenced him to 59 years in prison for the killing, followed by an additional 25-year suspended sentence.
Zarrius Hildabrand, 24, received a 59-year sentence for killing his wife, Saria Hildabrand, a combat medic whose remains were found near their Anchorage apartment
Saria served as a combat medic with the Alaska National Guard and had moved from Utah to Alaska to live with her husband just six months before her death
During Friday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Peter Ramgren sharply criticized Hildabrand’s conduct and pointed to what he described as a persistent lack of remorse during the investigation and trial.
Although jurors rejected the first-degree murder charge, the judge said he believed Hildabrand had deliberately killed his wife.
‘This was an inexplicable killing, completely unwarranted and without provocation,’ Judge Ramgren said.
‘He killed his wife and then methodically engaged in a dayslong attempt to cover up his conduct and to avoid its consequences, with no thought for anyone but himself.’
When Judge Ramgren invited Hildabrand to speak, the former soldier declined, responding only: ‘No, your honor.’
The judge appeared disappointed and said he had hoped Hildabrand would say something, including offering ‘at least some sort of apology to the family.’
‘His failure to take responsibility reflects poorly on his prospects for rehabilitation,’ Judge Ramgren added.
Hildabrand will not be eligible for parole until he has served at least two-thirds of his active prison sentence.
A missing-person poster was circulated while Hildabrand pretended to search for his wife, despite knowing her remains had been placed in a storm drain
The events began on August 5, 2023, when the couple went out with friends to celebrate Hildabrand’s birthday.
They spent part of the evening at Dave & Buster’s, visited a bar in downtown Anchorage and returned to their apartment in the early morning hours.
According to prosecutors, Saria discovered evidence of her husband’s infidelity on his phone that night and was subsequently shot.
Investigators determined that Hildabrand had purchased a 96-gallon rolling garbage can from Lowe’s and used it to move her body to a nearby storm drain.
He also bought hydrogen peroxide, new bedsheets, a mattress cover and other supplies, apparently seeking to remove signs of the killing.
The deception continued the next morning when Hildabrand told police that Saria had gone to work, even though he was hungover after their night out.
He said she had left her phone behind but taken her purse and wallet before walking to Bread and Brew, a restaurant roughly a mile away.
Detectives soon found a critical contradiction in his account.
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Zarrius Hildabrand shot his wife, Saria Barney, 21, on August 6, 2023, then hid her body in a storm drain near their home and misled authorities about her disappearance
The former soldier testified that once or twice a year he would drink until he could no longer remember what had happened
At 10.45am, Saria’s colleagues received a text from her phone saying she would not be coming to work, even though Hildabrand insisted the device was still inside the apartment.
He denied sending the message and could not explain how it had been sent.
As the investigation continued, Saria’s family grew increasingly concerned.
Her mother, Meredith Barney, recalled receiving a photograph of the couple smiling during the birthday celebration. It was the last message she would ever receive from her daughter.
Meredith later traveled from Utah to Alaska with Saria’s aunt to help search for her.
During the search, she described her son-in-law as ‘very paranoid and very rigid.’
While as many as 70 volunteers looked for the missing soldier, investigators began finding troubling clues inside the apartment.
Detectives noticed that the couple’s bed no longer had its usual sheets, while unopened replacements had been left on the kitchen table.
When officers asked to inspect beneath the mattress, Hildabrand refused, saying embarrassing sexual items were stored there.
Saria’s mother, Meredith, told the court that her daughter sent her one final message during the couple’s night out
A later search found that blood had soaked through the mattress, into the carpet and across the wooden bed frame.
Investigators also found blood in the bathtub and on sections of the floor, evidence that someone had made extensive efforts to clean the apartment.
Police eventually located the discarded garbage can and used a drone to examine a nearby drainage system.
Beneath a pillow inside the storm drain, they found Saria’s remains.
At trial, Hildabrand acknowledged that he had disposed of his wife’s body but said he could not remember whether he was the person who killed her.
‘The plan was to hide the body of my wife and then clean up the blood off the mattress and the surrounding area,’ he testified.
Asked how he knew he had not fired the gun, he replied: ‘I don’t.’
The defense argued that Saria’s death may have been accidental or self-inflicted, claiming prosecutors had not conclusively established the precise sequence of events.
Hildabrand’s attorney, Lacey Jane Brewster, told jurors that if her client had killed Saria, it was ‘more likely’ the result ‘of a drunken mishandling of a firearm.’
Hildabrand’s defense team also argued that Saria’s death may have been self-inflicted
Prosecutor Brittany Dunlop rejected that account, arguing that Hildabrand’s actions after the shooting showed a deliberate attempt to conceal a killing.
‘Selective amnesia is a coward’s way out of a hard truth,’ she told jurors. ‘You don’t cover up an accident, you cover up a crime.’
The jury ultimately found Hildabrand guilty of murder.
At Friday’s sentencing, Saria’s relatives described the devastating and lasting impact of her death on their family.
‘This man showed no remorse or even emotion about what he did to her. He played a game with me and my family,’ her mother, Meredith Barney, said.
‘Every human makes mistakes, even big ones that hurt people. However, not everyone defiles a corpse and throws it down the storm drain. He did that. He did that to my little girl.’
