Woman kills 2 men, beheading 1 of them, Kentucky cops say. She’s prison-bound

A woman accused of killing two men and hiding their bodies in the crawl spaces of their Kentucky homes is now prison-bound, court records show.

Sara McQuilling, 44, of Louisville, will serve 20 years in prison following the September 2021 deaths of Douglas Brooks and Jerry Cardin, according to the records filed in Jefferson County.

WDRB reported McQuilling accepted an Alford plea, pleading guilty to “complicity to murder, second-degree complicity to manslaughter, two counts of abuse of a corpse, two counts of tampering with physical evidence and theft.”

By taking an Alford plea, McQuilling accepts a plea bargain while maintaining her innocence, the outlet reported. Her attorney, Sheila Seader, said McQuilling is innocent.

Prosecutors said McQuilling killed the two men from Sept. 17 to Sept. 24 in 2021.

She was accused of fatally stabbing Brooks and decapitating him. His body was found Sept. 27 “in a crawl space in the cellar of his house,” but his head was never found, officials said.

McQuilling fatally shot Cardin, whose body was discovered Sept. 23 in a crawl space of his home, according to prosecutors.

A motive for the killings is unclear.

The Louisville Metropolitan Police Department said McQuilling was found Sept. 24 driving Cardin’s truck. At the time, she told arresting authorities she used a revolver to kill Cardin, according to a citation.

Her former landlord said she never would have suspected McQuilling, a married mother of six, would harm anyone, WLKY reported.

“It shows you never truly know about an individual, no matter how much you like them, no matter what they seem like. You got to be careful, man, anymore,” Ashley Dutschke told the outlet.

This story was originally published August 4, 2025 at 3:28 PM with the headline "Woman kills 2 men, beheading 1 of them, Kentucky cops say. She’s prison-bound."