Who is Bernard Sharp, suspect in 1985 murder of UT Arlington student Terri McAdams?
Nearly 40 years after the brutal murder of a 22-year-old UT Arlington student, authorities have identified her suspected killer, who’s been dead nearly as long as the victim.
On Wednesday, Arlington police and the FBI announced that Bernard Sharp killed Terri McAdams. DNA testing done on an out-of-state relative confirmed Sharp’s identity.
On Valentine’s Day 1985, a maintenance worker found McAdams’ body inside the apartment she shared with her fiancé in the 2500 block of Walnut Hill Circle. McAdams had been sexually assaulted and beaten to death with a blunt instrument.
Nine months later on Nov. 3, 1985, Sharp fatally shot his wife and her friend and critically wounded her cousin. Then he turned the gun on himself, according to police.
No arrests were ever made in connection with McAdams’ murder in spite of a thorough investigation at the time, police said.
In 2021, investigators were able to build a DNA profile for a male suspect using physical evidence collected at the scene of the crime. No matches were found in a national database of convicted offenders, so detectives decided to try another technique involving DNA and genealogy research.
After several months, investigators identified Sharp as a potential suspect. A DNA sample provided by one of his relatives clinched the identification, police said.
Sharp and McAdams apparently didn’t know each other. Police believe Sharp killed the 22-year-old student at random after gaining access to her apartment through a sliding glass door.
Sharp had at least one unrelated arrest and a criminal history of sexual assault involving two victims other than McAdams, police said.
“Over the years, it would be easy to lose faith and accept that this case might never be solved,” said Chief of Police Al Jones at a news conference Wednesday. “But Terri’s family never gave up hope and our detectives never wavered. Now, we get to provide answers that this department has wanted to provide for nearly four decades.”
🚨 More top stories from our newsroom:
→ Woman accused of killing Fort Worth officer was on probation
→ Layoffs with ‘no warning’ at Dr. Phil’s Fort Worth media company
→ More jailers sued by family of man killed in Tarrant County Jail
[Get our breaking news alerts.]
