Police Were Stunned by What They Learned After Finding Sharron Erickson’s Body — And So Was the Entire Community

Sharron Erickson’s murder led her close-knit community of neighbors to question each other

Sharron Erickson’s murder turned the small town of Colon, Neb., upside down.

Erickson was a 66-year-old retiree who was a notable resident in the town of approximately 100 people. On the night of June 30, 2003, Erickson’s body was found after she had been brutally murdered in her garage, per Oxygen.

Police subsequently conducted an investigation but struggled to make sense of the ruthless murder and strange crime scene, which included a gun near her body despite there being no evidence of gunshot wounds. An autopsy report eventually revealed that she had died from blunt force trauma and asphyxiation, according to court documents.

In addition to learning the vicious nature of her death, investigators also found out that she had been sexually assaulted. The case went cold for nearly a year before a break in DNA evidence matched her murderer to her lifelong neighbor, James Marrs.

Marrs later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Erickson’s life and murder were examined in the premiere episode of Oxygen’s The Killer Among Us, which premiered on May 17.

Here’s everything to know about Sharron Erickson’s murder and how her killer was apprehended.

Who was Sharron Erickson?

Sharron Erickson’s home.Oxygen True Crime

Sharron Erickson was a 66-year-old beloved member of the Colon, Neb., community. Prior to her death, Erickson worked in the county treasurer’s office for 30 years before retiring in 1998, according to Oxygen.

“Sharron Erickson had probably the highest standards of anybody that worked at the courthouse,” Erickson’s friend Don Clark said in The Killer Among Us. “She was always dressed properly, very cordial to people.”

Erickson lived in a converted grocery store and seemed to enjoy retirement over the last few years of her life. Her friends recalled that she’d developed a routine that included chatting with various members of the small town up and down Main Street.

What happened to Erickson?

The garage where Sharron Erickson was found.Oxygen True Crime

On June 30, 2003, some of Erickson’s relatives and neighbors became concerned when she didn’t follow her usual routine. Erickson’s unrecognizable body was then discovered lying in her garage, which was located across the street from her house, surrounded by pools of blood.

“She was wearing what appeared to be like clothes that she would be sleeping in, just like a pajama outfit,” former Saunders County prosecutor and coroner Scott Tingelhoff recalled in the doc. “There is a gun that is laying just by her head, which is in a pool of blood and it appears that maybe it’s a self-inflicted gunshot.”

However, upon investigating the crime scene, police discovered several oddities. Although there was a gun near her body, Erickson didn’t have any gunshot wounds. Her purse was also with her, her phone lines had been cut and the alarm near her back door was going off. Inside her bedroom, there was an empty gun holster on a table.

“It looked like she might have been in bed, and she might have taken the gun out of the holster and left in a hurry,” Saunders County Deputy Kyle Couglin remembered.

Investigators ran through several theories — from a targeted murder to a burglary gone wrong — before they came to the conclusion that someone broke into Erickson’s home and when she awoke, she grabbed a gun from her bedroom and ran to the garage, where she was ultimately killed.

The autopsy report revealed that Erickson’s cause of death was blunt force trauma and asphyxiation. Medical examiners determined that she was beaten to death and strangled and had also been sexually assaulted.

How was Sharron Erickson’s killer caught?

James Marrs.Nebraska Department of Correctional Services

The strange circumstances around Erickson’s murder ultimately resulted in it taking 10 months for police to arrest a suspect. Authorities initially looked into a truck driver and a postmaster, but both were dead ends.

Authorities initially spoke to Marrs, who lived on his family’s farm behind Erickson’s home, but his alibi of being at a bar was verified by his mom, per Oxygen. The case subsequently went cold, with the small community turning on each other and questioning who murdered their beloved neighbor.

“People started pointing fingers at each other,” Clark said in the doc. “Saying, ‘I bet he did it.’ Or, ‘he did it’ or ‘he did it.’ “

Progress in the case finally came in early 2004 when DNA evidence from the crime scene matched Marrs. He was charged on May 5 and with first-degree murder, per court documents.

Shortly after he was arrested, Marrs confessed to the murder and alleged that he was inebriated and broke into Erickson’s home to steal money. He cut the phone line so she couldn’t call for help and forced himself in through the back door.

However, Erickson had already awoken and confronted him with the gun to try to frighten him. Marrs retaliated by starting to assault her, forcing Erickson to run for the garage where he ultimately killed her.

“Everything he was saying fit the entire aspect that we’d investigated, but he would not admit to the sexual assault and almost started to shut down in his confession when I went to that,” Saunders County Det. Kevin Stukenholtz said.

Marrs pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in August 2005 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.