Member-only story
The Bookstore Murder: A Long Road to Justice
It took a decade for the vital clue Sherry Black’s killer left at her crime scene to come to fruition.
November 30th 2010 was just another busy day in the life of 64-year-old Sherry Black from South Salt Lake in Utah.
She was the owner of a small, independent bookstore at the same time as being the pillar of her extended family, which included six grandchildren and a baby great-grandchild.
Sherry was working amid her beloved piles of books that early winter’s morning, and to all intents and purposes, things were perfectly normal. But when her devoted husband Earl arrived back at the store from a meeting, he was to come upon a scene from his worst nightmares.
Inside the store lay Sherry, who had been beaten and stabbed to death. A frantic Earl called 911, but it was too late for her to be saved.
Investigators were baffled as to who could have wanted to hurt the beloved grandmother. She was known for being quiet and keeping herself to herself, so there was nothing to indicate anything that would put her at high risk of such violence.
Detectives thought the crime was probably random and unplanned, so they canvassed the neighbourhood to see if nearby residents had heard or seen…