Defense attorney Rip Biggs, right, consoles his client as Jessica Sterchi becomes emotional after her bonds were raised and case bound over to the grand jury during a preliminary hearing in Judge Gary StarnesÕs courtroom on June 11, 2014. Sterchi informed police that she was present with her brother and boyfriend when Zachery Higdon was killed in his trailer nearly three years ago.Nearly three years ago, Jessica Sterchi said something that changed her life and likely ended another’s.
She was fighting with her on-and-off boyfriend Travis Caslin. Both were looking for drugs, cocaine if they could get it. She told him that Zacherey Higdon dealt it, and maybe they could steal some. He wouldn’t put up a fight.
But he did, and he’s dead.
All police had before they talked with Sterchi in April were rumors of Higdon’s October 2011 shooting death at his home in the Whispering Pines mobile home park at 900 Airport Road.
His mother had found his body, splayed as if he’d been crucified, a pillow over his face, his hands outstretched, sprayed with bleach, his right ankle crossed over his left and his pants pulled down.