Police solve 1985 murder of UT Arlington student Terri McAdams. Killer died by suicide
Terri McAdams, a 22-year-old UT Arlington student, was found beaten to death inside her apartment on Valentine’s Day 1985. Investigators struggled to find her killer, but no arrests were made and the case went cold until now.
On Wednesday, Arlington police and the FBI announced that DNA testing of a relative confirmed the killer’s identity. The killer, Bernard Sharp, took his own life months after McAdams’ death, police said. He shot himself after killing his wife and her friend and critically wounding her cousin. Sharp apparently did not know McAdams and killed her at random, police said.
Arlington police, the FBI Dallas Field Office and McAdams’ family are holding a joint news conference Wednesday afternoon. Police Chief Al Jones, FBI Special Agent in Charge Chad Yarbrough and members of the investigative team discussed the major developments in the case.
On Feb. 14, 1985, McAdams’ body was found in the apartment that the Arkansas native shared with her fiance in the 2500 block of Walnut Hill Circle in Arlington. She had been brutally beaten and sexually assaulted.
McAdams’ fiance was out of town on a business trip, and she had planned to pick him up at the airport later that day, according to the Star-Telegram’s archives.
The couple had planned to marry within months, according to previous Star-Telegram reporting. McAdams’ $5,000 engagement ring was missing when her body was discovered.
Police did not find a murder weapon but believed that the killer used a hammer or some other type of blunt instrument. At the time, a filtered cigarette found at the scene was tested for DNA.
Homicide detectives worked around the clock for months, the Star-Telegram reported at the time. McAdams’ parents offered a reward, pleading for help to apprehend the person who killed their daughter.
In 2023, APD sought the assistance of the FBI’s Investigative Genetic Genealogy team to help work on the case through analysis of DNA evidence.
McAdams had been scared by a series of killings and disappearances of young women in the Fort Worth area that made headlines beginning in 1984, her mother, Anne McAdams, told the Star-Telegram in 1985. Fort Worth police and other law enforcement in North Texas started a task force to investigate the possibility of one or more serial killers committing the murders.
The college student took extraordinary precautions to try to protect herself, such as quitting her job in Irving so she wouldn’t have to drive home after dark, her mother said. At night, especially when her fiance was out of town, Terri McAdams became reclusive and rarely went out, even for groceries. She often called her mom in Little Rock to discuss her fears.
“She was terrified,” Anne McAdams said in March 1985. “All the girls (who disappeared or were killed) were about her age, and they were young, pretty girls. So naturally, being that far from home in a strange town, and something like that going on, you would be afraid. She was really careful about not going out at night, and she took every precaution she thought necessary.”
Her killer found her at home, according to police. Investigators found evidence that suggested the murderer broke in through a patio door. Police also found a distinctive footprint outside.
Police believed McAdams was killed on the night of Feb. 13 or early on the morning of Feb. 14. She had gone to a store that day and was planning to bake a cake for her fiance for Valentine’s Day.
Her body was found by a maintenance worker the next day.
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