Reward offered for leads in slaying (McKinney, TX)

McKINNEY – A company put up a $10,000 reward Monday to help solve the slaying of a house saleswoman killed over the weekend in McKinney. Schepps Dairy announced the reward as investigators continued to search for clues in the fatal stabbing of 40-year-old Sarah Anne Walker, who was found dead Saturday in a model home at The Hemingway at Craig Ranch community. Sarah Anne Walker Police are investigating several theories, including the possibility that Ms. Walker knew her attackers, McKinney police spokesman Randy Roland said. Ms. Walker was stabbed 27 times on her upper body. "Police experience shows that [being stabbed] 27 times is a very personal attack," Capt. Roland said Monday. Collin County medical examiner William Rohr told police that a "sharp-edged instrument" was used in the attack, but investigators said they don't know exactly what kind of object was the murder weapon. Ms. Walker also suffered bruises in the attack. A couple on a house-hunting trip stumbled upon the crime scene about 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Furniture, plants and other items were strewn across the floor. Many of Ms. Walker's wounds were defensive, indicating that she put up a fight. The attack stunned residents of McKinney, many of whom moved to the growing Dallas suburb to avoid crime. It is the second slaying of the year in McKinney.

Slaying victim's family speaks out

McKinney: Police praised; woman's online-dating postings discussed

By KAREN AYRES and TIARA M. ELLIS / The Dallas Morning News

The family of a house saleswoman killed over the weekend in McKinney said Tuesday that they were confident that police would solve the horrific crime.

Family members spoke out as police continued to follow leads involving Sarah Anne Walker's life, including postings she made on several online dating Web sites.

Sarah Anne Walker Ms. Walker, 40, who was killed Saturday in a model home in McKinney, posted a profile on MillionaireMatch.com shortly before her death, her sister confirmed Tuesday. The site showed that 58 people had viewed her profile.

McKinney police spokesman Randy Roland confirmed that police also are looking into postings on other dating Web sites.

Jackie Mull, Ms. Walker's sister, said Tuesday that she told police about the online postings. Family members said Ms. Walker was "tight lipped" about her personal life, but Ms. Mull said she doesn't believe her sister was dating anyone.

"If she was dating someone, I would have known," Ms. Mull said Tuesday at her Dallas home.

The reward in the case jumped to $30,000 on Tuesday after D.R. Horton Inc. and Craig Ranch developers each matched the original $10,000 reward offered by Schepps Dairy.

Ms. Walker had been selling homes for D.R. Horton in the Craig Ranch community on Saturday when a couple on a house-hunting trip discovered her body. She had 27 stab wounds in her upper body.

Ms. Mull and her family criticized D.R. Horton for failing to contact them or offer funds to help pay for Ms. Walker's funeral.

D.R. Horton chief executive Don Tomnitz said the company has cooperated with police and would give all of Ms. Walker's pay to her designated beneficiary, whom he declined to identify. Mr. Tomnitz said the company has provided grief counseling for Ms. Walker's 3-year-old son and has established a memorial fund to help cover funeral costs and expenses for the child.

"She was a first-class person and a top sales agent," said, Mr. Tomnitz, who added that he knew Ms. Walker personally during her more than three years with the company.

Mr. Tomnitz said the model home had a security system with a panic button, but he declined to say whether it had been pushed, citing the ongoing police investigation.

Family members said they don't believe Ms. Walker was robbed during the attack.

Stephen Mull, Ms. Walker's brother-in-law, said Ms. Walker had left behind little to no money in her estate. On her MillionaireMatch.com profile, Ms. Walker said she made more than $200,000 a year.

Jackie Mull, sister of slaying victim Sarah Anne Walker, said during a news conference on Tuesday that she would have known whether Ms. Walker were dating somebody. Ms. Mull confirmed that her sister earned a lot of money but said she spent a lot, too. Divorce records show Ms. Walker carried debt on several credit cards, including some from high-end stores like Neiman Marcus and Saks.

"She made a lot of money, and she enjoyed a lot of things," Ms. Mull said.

The MillionaireMatch.com site caters to people who want to meet millionaires. Ms. Mull said her sister posted a profile recently after her divorce in November from Randy Tate, her second husband and the father of Josh, 3.

"She was looking forward to moving on," she said.

Ms. Walker's profile on the site lists travel and water sports as her hobbies. The profile said she was looking for a Christian man with character and integrity.

Family members said Ms. Walker was quite focused and had earned several awards during her 20-year career selling homes. A graduate of Berkner High School in Richardson, Ms. Walker took online courses to earn her undergraduate degree and a master's degree in business administration.

"Right now we're still kind of dazed," said Joe Walker, Ms. Walker's brother. "She wanted nothing but the best for everyone."

Ms. Mull and other family members said the news of Ms. Walker's death has devastated the family. In addition to her son Josh, Ms. Walker leaves behind a 15-year-old son from her first marriage.

"This has been horrible," Ms. Mull said. "My mother is very ill. To have this happen, I don't know what her outcome is going to be. ... I was completely shocked when I got the news, so shocked I was screaming. My husband thought I had dropped our newborn."

Family members said Ms. Walker had not mentioned being afraid for her safety. They said they had no idea who killed her but noted that she had called police to report two incidents at her Frisco home.

The first call came on Oct. 31 when Ms. Walker reported that a friend had stolen some property. When police arrived, nothing was missing and it appeared that Ms. Walker was intoxicated, according to police. She had a bump on her head, and paramedics took her to Centennial Medical Center in Frisco.

Family members said the second call came in November when Ms. Walker told them that she was attacked in her home so severely that she was taken to the hospital. She told her family that someone had broken in, but she could not identify her attacker.

Police say they have no record of that attack, and a spokeswoman at Centennial said she was admitted after the October incident only.

Mr. Mull said Tuesday that he believes there is a connection between those attacks and Ms. Walker's death.

"It's an incredible coincidence, let's put it that way," he said.

Capt. Roland said Tuesday that McKinney police are encouraged by the amount of information they've gathered.

"Investigators are conducting lots of interviews of witnesses, people of interest, friends, family, business co-workers and trying to understand all the tons of information that we have gathered about the victim, then create a motive for some type of reason for her death," Capt. Roland said.

Mr. Tate was one of those interviewed Tuesday. He voluntarily went to McKinney police headquarters to provide a statement and answer questions, Capt. Roland said.

Police completed forensic mapping of the crime scene earlier this week. That information will provide investigators with details about the last moments of Ms. Walker's life.

"It tells a story of where the attack happened, where the killer walked and where the victim walked and laid," Capt. Roland said.

Ms. Mull said the little she has heard about the police investigation leads her to be optimistic that her sister's killer would be found.

"I'm confident there is going to be a resolution, some way, somehow, from the promise I was given by the McKinney Police Department that they will not stop."

A funeral Mass for Ms. Walker will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Monica's Catholic Church, 9933 Midway Road in Dallas.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/071206dnccomcslaying.17fd4bd.html

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/071606dnccowalker.1267f92.html

Slain woman lived life 'to the extreme'

McKinney: Home seller left many friends, many people to question

By KAREN AYRES and TIARA M. ELLIS / The Dallas Morning News

Sarah Anne Walker Sarah Anne Walker used to tell her friends that life was worth enjoying. She never needed to be reminded in return.

An expensive Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz sat in her driveway. Fancy clothes came from Saks and Neiman Marcus. Friends joined her on luxurious vacations to California, Colorado and Hawaii.

"Everything she did was to the extreme," said longtime friend Holly Citelli. "Everything she did was above and beyond."

Ms. Walker didn't seem to worry much about life's limitations. But that all ended July 8 when she was stabbed to death in a model home in McKinney. Police counted 27 wounds in her upper body.

Ms. Walker's outgoing personality left a trail of friends, exes and clients for investigators to question. Police hope that trail will lead to her killer.

"The nature of her job has created a large circle of friends and business acquaintances ... who came in contact with her," said Capt. Randy Roland of the McKinney Police Department.

"We are hoping they can tell us something she was concerned about or was out of the ordinary in her life that worried her."

Ms. Walker's exuberant personality – "freaky vivacious" as Ms. Citelli puts it – surfaced early.

A son rarely seen

Born in Dubuque, Iowa, Ms. Walker moved around the country for much of her childhood. Joe Walker, a Kmart executive, nicknamed his eldest daughter "motor mouth."

"She always talked," said younger sister Jackie Mull. "That was just her."

Ms. Walker liked to do things for other people – in grand style. When her younger brother was in the seventh grade, she decorated his locker and filled it with candy to celebrate his birthday.

After Ms. Walker graduated from Berkner High School in Richardson in 1983, she landed a job leasing apartments in North Dallas. Apartments quickly turned into houses as Ms. Walker realized that real estate was a good way to make money.

At 23, Ms. Walker married her first husband, Mort Mohaddes, a longtime love interest. They had a son named Alex. But the marriage broke up after five years. Young Alex and his father, who could not be reached for comment, moved out of state. Ms. Walker would rarely see her son.

"I think there was a lot of pain there," Ms. Citelli said. "It wasn't a subject that came up often."

Alex, now 15, did not attend his mother's funeral on Thursday, said Ms. Walker's brother, Joe Walker.

Spontaneous
In 1997, Ms. Walker married Randy Tate, who was also in the tight-knit real estate industry. The couple lived in a large, red brick house in a quiet subdivision lined with expensive cars in West Plano. Mr. Tate did not respond to several requests for interviews.

Always a fan of the beach, Ms. Walker brought the tropics to her home.

"We were in the back yard and she just stood up and said, 'This back yard isn't tropical enough. It needs a palm tree,' " said Sam Coronado, a family friend. "Then she goes to the store and, sure enough, she comes back with this huge palm tree. She was that spontaneous."

In 2002, Ms. Walker gave birth to her second son, Josh. The following year she started working for D.R. Horton, a prominent national homebuilder.

Former co-workers and real estate agents said her outgoing personality sealed many deals. Clients would come to browse and find themselves signing a contract.

In 2004, she earned $100,000 in a single month, winning a company sales contest, former co-workers said. She won a trip to her beloved Hawaii to celebrate with company executives.

But all was not well.

A second divorce

Ms. Walker showed up to work with a black eye one day in late 2004, said a former co-worker who declined to be identified. She never said how she got it.

A year later, her marriage fell apart. Ms. Walker filed for divorce and moved into a nearby apartment while Mr. Tate remained in the house.

She got the Mercedes and Jaguar, divorce records show. He got the Harley, Yukon and four-wheeler. She also absorbed the debt on nine credit cards, including several from luxury stores.

Their custody arrangement called for Josh to spend most of the week with his dad, but Ms. Walker had her son on her two days off and at other times. The divorce only improved her friendship with Mr. Tate, Ms. Citelli said.

"He was her rock, her stability in life," she said.

Ms. Walker continued to travel, taking off with little notice. She also leased a house in Laguna Beach, Calif., with an open door for friends and family.

When her brother showed up with friends, Ms. Walker was generous, even buying one friend a suit. He wore it to Thursday's funeral.

In the months after the divorce, Ms. Walker started dating again and made a list of "Sarah's qualifications for next husband," found in her home, according to a search warrant affidavit. Ms. Citelli said her friend had a taste for outgoing men who liked to have fun, but she said Ms. Walker wasn't serious about anyone in particular.

"She might have had a few who were serious about her," Ms. Citelli said.

Ms. Walker also posted profiles on dating Web sites, including MillionaireMatch.com, a site that caters to people who want to meet millionaires. Photos show her relaxing in Maui, Hawaii.

Her profile listed her income as more than $200,000 a year, but relatives would later say she left little to no money.

The day she died

About eight months ago, she told police that she thought she had been robbed at her Frisco apartment. Ms. Walker had a bump on her head when police arrived, but she wasn't able to tell them whether she was struck. She didn't normally lock her doors.

Police thought she was intoxicated and paramedics took her to the hospital.

Ms. Walker also told her family that in November she was attacked so severely that she couldn't see properly, but Frisco police say they have no records of the incident.

The day she died, Mr. Tate came by her new home in Frisco early in the morning to pick up Josh. It was their normal routine.

While Josh was still sleeping, the two talked about how Ms. Walker had recently dated men who were 15 years younger than her and were looking for her to support them, Mr. Tate said in other media reports.

Mr. Tate told police he then left with Josh, played a round of golf with friends and talked on the phone on his drive home.

Ms. Walker went to her office at a model home in the sprawling Craig Ranch development in McKinney.

She phoned a friend around 12:30. Less than an hour later, a couple from Plano found her body in the kitchen and waved down a passer-by to call police. Investigators would later say many of her 27 stab wounds were defensive, indicating she put up a fight in her final moments.

Police later collected a journal from her home and interviewed dozens of people. One police theory is that she knew her attacker, based in part on the number of stab wounds.

Family members say she knew so many people it's impossible to think of who could have killed her. Friends say her different clusters of friends didn't often intermingle, so it's difficult to know who could have been involved in the crime.

As the investigation continues, her brother said he's happy that she seemed to enjoy her life while it lasted.

"So many times you get caught up in whatever you're doing and you forget to laugh," Mr. Walker said. "She remembered that we're here to have a good time, too. I wish more people were like her."

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.