2010 Murder of Beloved Grandmother | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace | Forensic Files

[TENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: South Salt Lake City, Utah, November 2010-- Earl Black returns to his wife's bookstore
to find her brutally murdered. It's hard to imagine for a stranger coming upon such
a scene, but imagine if this were your wife, your husband, your loved one, lying on the floor,
having been stabbed more than a dozen times. NANCY GRACE: It's a horrible scene.
Earl's wife, 64-year-old Sherry Black, has been beaten and stabbed to death. I know he never spent another night in that home.
And I can't imagine what he's had to live with, having that image of her in his mind.
NANCY GRACE: The local community fears there could be a killer amongst them. Detectives rush to track down the unknown assailant.
BEN PENDER: Is this something that was just personal? Or was this just a robbery that maybe went bad?
Or is this somebody that's in the community that's going to do this again? NANCY GRACE: This is a story of how a relentless detective
and brand new forensic science combined to solve the tragic murder of a beloved grandma
after 10 long years. I'm Nancy Grace. This is "Bloodline Detectives." [THEME MUSIC]
[GRIM MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: Salt Lake City, Utah, a city with a history steeped in theology and spirituality.
Thursday, November 30, 2010, 1:30 PM in the afternoon, police get a disturbing phone call from a local resident.
Earl Black came home that afternoon. He left for work that morning, said goodbye to his wife, who
was still in her pajamas, and got back and, like any husband coming home, would probably be calling out, hey, I'm back.
I'm home. Started looking for her in the house, could not find her. Went into the book shop adjacent to the house
and worked his way back from the front door through this warren of little areas where books were stacked and shelved, to the storeroom where
his wife kept her work area and her most valuable books, and found her dead, murdered, slaughtered on the floor.
BEN PENDER: You can hear the frustration in his voice. He is extremely upset, which is understandable.
He indicated that his wife has been murdered. He indicated that he had removed a pair of shearing scissors
that were embedded in her chest. PATT MORRISON: He kept saying, my wife has been killed.
My wife has been killed. And you heard the operator say, is she breathing? He kept repeating in frustration,
my wife has been killed. And so, South Salt Lake City Police, of course, showed up,
and then detectives showed up. This was a grotesque murder, and obviously, from the get-go,
a complicated one. BEN PENDER: At that point, the officers would have gone into the scene to determine if there's
any other suspects, the condition of Sherry, and then to back out of the scene, once the medical had arrived and sent somebody in to verify
that she was actually deceased. Everybody would have backed out and locked that residence and bookstore down to preserve
the evidence at the scene. NANCY GRACE: South Salt Lake City Police ask for help
from the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services, who arrive quickly on the scene. BEN PENDER: They identified some blood on a map, a rolled up map.
They were also able to identify a belt that was just outside of that west back room that didn't
quite fit into the scene. It was just laying on the floor. It was a knockoff Armani Exchange brown belt,
36 to 38 waist size. ROSIE RIVERA: That belt had been one of the topics of evidence
on all the news stories. It had been put out there, this belt was left at the scene.
And then there was a number of other things, such as books that were collected, blood swabs that were collected, partial fingerprints
collected, a palm print that was identified by them and collected. So they did an outstanding job in processing
that scene for South Salt Lake. REBEKAH KAY: All of the evidence, as far as the stains
and the swabs that were collected, were sent through our typical pathway through the laboratory, where we're able to break open
any cells that are within the biological evidence that's collected in order to develop a DNA profile.
And we did get what we call a single-source DNA profile from the perpetrator, meaning a DNA profile
just of that individual. With no other individuals in that particular sample, that can kind of make it a little harder to deal with.
NANCY GRACE: Detectives may have their first real clues from blood spatters left behind at the crime scene.
But will that be enough to catch a vicious killer? We find out next on "Bloodline Detectives."
[AUDIO LOGO] [AUDIO LOGO] [TENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: South Salt Lake City, Utah, 2010--
Earl Black returns home to find his wife, Sherry, brutally murdered in the bookstore
she runs from her home. Sherry Black specializes in rare books about the Mormon faith.
A beloved 64-year-old grandma, Sherry's was found beaten and stabbed dead with kitchen shears.
After calling 911, husband Earl Black tells the devastating news to the rest of the family.
PATT MORRISON: Heidi had already been concerned because she had tried to call her mother that day.
She called her at home-- no answer. She called her at the bookshop-- no answer. I just remember having a weird feeling, and that wasn't normal.
I mean, I-- I'm sure there were many times that I would call my parents and not get somebody.
But usually, she would answer her cell phone. My dad called me and just said, someone's killed your mom.
Get here quick. And I just-- what? Are you kidding? What? And I just did not-- was she hit by a car?
Was she-- I didn't really comprehend what he was saying. So my daughter was there.
My daughter, Alyssa, was there. And she drove us down to my parents' house. And I just remember thinking, if I get there fast enough,
maybe I can save her. Maybe-- maybe she's not gone. And that's-- that's how I learned.
I found out my grandma had been killed when my younger sister called me. She was hysterical on the phone and told
me Grandma had been killed. I didn't get a lot of details. I just got that very basic information
and loaded up the car and went straight to her house. The street was lined with ambulances and cop
cars and crime scene tape. And as I rounded the corner onto that busy street, that's when it started to sink in for me that this was--
the gravity of the situation. I just remember the-- the looks on the officers' faces at the time.
You knew it impacted them. It had a big impression on them. And they all had moms.
And I knew it was important for them to find the person that did this. NANCY GRACE: Detectives immediately
canvass the area in search for a merciless killer. ROSIE RIVERA: Right after the crime was committed,
police went out to the neighborhood. They collected whatever video footage they could
that was available from businesses or home footage, and also talked to people in the neighborhoods.
And then they also talked with the media and had the media put out information on the case
and that we were looking for a suspect. NANCY GRACE: Sherry's body taken to the morgue.
Detectives hope an autopsy will reveal vital clues about the final moments leading up to Sherry's death.
It's curious about an autopsy. People think of victims as dead, and they are. But an autopsy is where the victim speaks.
The victim's body tells the investigators, tells the coroner clues and things that happened,
tells those stories mutely with what happened to the body-- the evidence of the wounds, the nature of the wounds,
the defensive wounds. NANCY GRACE: The true extent of Sherry Black's injuries is revealed.
BEN PENDER: She had a number of stab wounds in the back of her head, and she had a number of stab wounds
to her face. There were a few throughout the body, obviously, the scissors that were embedded in her chest.
Her carotid artery was cut on her throat. She sustained multiple bruising, blunt force trauma.
She sustained some injuries to her hands, to the inside and outside of her hand, which was
described as defensive wounds. PATT MORRISON: Even though she was initially struck in the back, something happened where she fought back.
And all of her grandchildren, who were talked to by investigators, said she was feisty.
One friend called her a tough old broad. And the fact that she would have fought back
would not have come as a surprise to them. [SOMBER MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: Sherry Black's grieving family and friends come
together to say their final goodbyes before she is laid to rest. To be honest, that whole week after losing her
is a bit of a blur. We were all still in shock and trying to wrap our heads around what had happened.
And I don't remember a lot of the details. I just remember how-- how heartbroken and shocked and just what an awful time it was.
HEIDI MILLER: The first days are just kind of a blur. Luckily, I had a lot of support and people
that helped and did a lot of the heavy lifting because you're just trying to survive.
The community was very supportive. We felt a lot of love and a lot of support from the community,
not just at that time, but for a long time after. People were very caring and concerned and--
and that meant a lot. The shock and grief from Sherry Black's horrible murder now gives way to dedicated police work.
First objective-- a closer look at Sherry Black's personal life. HEIDI MILLER: I don't ever remember hearing
her talk bad about anybody. She was just-- just a good, kind person. She loved her family passionately, loved being a mom,
and loved being a grandma. My grandma was just-- she was a lot of fun. I felt like she was my friend.
We had a really close bond and a close connection. And I just loved being with her and hanging out with her.
And I remember her taking an interest in the music I liked and dancing with me in the car.
And she just was always up for anything, and she was just a great, great time. From as early as I can remember, we would have sleepovers.
We'd go rent a movie and get treats. And she'd make dinner, or we'd have pizza. And we just really enjoyed that time together.
It was just a really, really special time. HEIDI MILLER: We didn't have a lot of money,
but we always had what we needed. And we took fun vacations. We had dirt bikes, and so we had our annual dirt bike trips.
And we'd go to the desert, and we went camping a lot. We went on river trips. My parents loved to run rivers, just a lot of outdoor stuff.
NANCY GRACE: Sherry Black's gruesome murder rocks the tight-knit community of South Salt Lake City.
PATT MORRISON: Why this woman? Why this place? What reason could it have been? And I think people wanted to find a motive, wanted to find
a reason, just to get a sense of closure for, well, could it be me next? If things this random can happen to someone this good,
who is safe? There was a lot of fear because of the unknown. Nobody knew who did this crime.
They knew it was horrific. There was a lot of news coverage, and it really did rock the community.
NANCY GRACE: Salt Lake City investigators re-examine the crime scene. PATT MORRISON: There were no signs of forced entry.
This was a book shop that did not keep the door locked once it was open for business.
Nobody had broken down a door to get in. Nobody had picked a lock to get in, which I think helped them
to fix the frame of the time of death, the time of the attack, that the door was not locked.
NANCY GRACE: Very quickly, it emerges a male customer was at the store that morning.
BEN PENDER: Based on the information from the telephone call to the customer, customer that
had called Sherry at 9:53 AM-- and then when the customer arrived, he indicated that he arrived approximately
at 1:30 PM as well. So we really have a very short window when this would have occurred.
So it would have had to have been after 9:53 and prior to 10:30. So we have less than an hour that everything occurred,
and this person was gone. NANCY GRACE: Detectives now believe Sherry's husband, Earl Black, may himself be a suspect.
PATT MORRISON: Earl Black was questioned by police and eliminated on several counts, one of them
the fact that he had an alibi, another the really pretty clear-cut evidence from the surveillance cameras
at the bookstore when he had left the house in the morning and when he came back several hours later into the bookstore
to find his wife dead. We're gonna look at friends and family. We're gonna start looking at business associates, customers.
We're looking at everything at this point. She was stabbed 12, 15, 17 times, which, to an investigator, might suggest,
this was somebody who knew you and was very angry with you. And that's one of the reasons that police also
looked at the circle of people she worked with, the booksellers, anybody she may have encountered
in her volunteer work, somebody who might have had some reason to dislike her, to distrust her, to be angry with her,
and to attack her. There was a couple of other cases that initially thought that there were similarities
in other states, but ultimately came back, and it was not a match either in those cases.
But yeah, I mean, I think you're looking everywhere and anywhere for anything that potentially could help in these types
of investigations. And it's just important that you try to cover all your bases in order to get the story and hopefully
lead us to the perpetrator. Investigators don't have a possible motive and few important clues for Sherry Black's brutal murder.
Can new forensic science help to identify this vicious killer? We'll find out next on "Bloodline Detectives."
[AUDIO LOGO] [AUDIO LOGO] [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: South Salt Lake City, Utah, 2010--
investigators led by Detective Ben Pender are looking for new tactics to solve the murder of a 64-year-old grandma,
Sherry Black. Sherry is found beaten and stabbed dead with kitchen shears. Her family struggles to come to terms with their loss.
When you're listening to the family say how much hurt they had because what they suffered
by losing their mother, their grandmother, but also because the individual had not been apprehended,
it created a fear in the family and more heartache because they just wanted some justice.
BEN PENDER: They kept it in the media, billboards, reward money, trying to solicit tips or any type of leads in the case.
They really did everything that they could possibly do to get the information out there and keep the information
out there, hoping that leads would come forward, or people eventually would maybe speak up and say
something to where it might lead investigators to the perpetrator. Even though the police were very frustrated,
they were aided in keeping the case in front of the public by Sherry's family. They would annually hold vigils on the anniversary
to remind people that this was still unsolved. They had that immense reward out there of at least $100,000.
They were very much front and center in the public eye for years to make sure that Sherry's killer was found and brought to justice.
We had, I think, 86 different individuals or persons of interest's DNA samples over the next decade.
NANCY GRACE: Investigators decide to input the killer's DNA sample into CODIS. CODIS stands for the Combined DNA Index System,
and it is a nationwide database of convicted offenders and arrestee samples. It allows us to enter profiles that are developed off
of evidence from putative perpetrators in order to potentially identify the individual.
HEIDI MILLER: When he was attacking her, he had cut himself. And when he was leaving, he shut the door to the back room
where she was and left a partial palm print in his blood on the door. So we had his DNA.
And of course, it's a natural that detectives and investigators would turn to this system
to put the DNA into it to see what kind of hits, what kind of reaction it would get, and perhaps find the name,
the identity of the killer. All of those individuals' DNA profiles were compared back to that unknown male DNA
profile on the evidence from the crime scene, and none of them matched. BEN PENDER: They retrieved DNA.
There was some blood on a rolled up map that was leaning against the wall directly next to the doorway leading into the back west room
and was uploaded into CODIS, but unfortunately, that did not come back to anybody either.
I mean, is it somebody that's young? Could that be the case, because they're not in CODIS?
Could it be somebody that's never been caught? Is it somebody that has been caught for other crimes,
but didn't lead up to that? Or is it somebody that has been caught for a violent crime
that, for whatever reason, it was overlooked, and their DNA wasn't collected? Years pass.
Little progress, if any, is made on Sherry's case. Detective Ben Pender refuses to give up.
He remains in close contact with Sherry Black's family. I think the fact that they knew that Sherry wasn't
forgotten, that things were happening on the case, and recognizing that sometimes things do take time.
At this time, this case, in March of 2018, had been transferred over to the unified police department,
and I was assigned this case as the lead investigator. That's when I feel like it really--
I knew he was working on it. We would meet with him every few months, and he would just go through his notebook
and just have pages and pages of things that he was looking into. REBEKAH KAY: Detective Pender had
heard about forensic genetic genealogy and had wondered if that was something that could be pursued
in this case, since we still had not identified who the perpetrator was. I told him that we did have very good evidence from the crime
scene, there was plenty of DNA left over, and that I thought it was a good idea for him to pursue that testing.
2015, Detective Ben Pender and his team hear about Parabon NanoLabs. Parabon's a company that specializes in DNA phenotyping,
a forensic science that allows scientists to predict physical characteristics of a person
simply by looking at their DNA. CECE MOORE: The more details that we can have about a crime, the better.
But we don't necessarily need to have that because the DNA is going to tell a story.
If we are given the information of where and when that crime occurred, that can really help us
narrow down the potential persons of interest. We're looking for someone who has
to be a certain age range in order to have been that suspect. And if we can find branches of the family tree
that are closer to that crime scene, then those are going to be of higher interest,
typically, than people who live much further away. BEN PENDER: The way Parabon reviewed
this case is they would actually give it a numbering system. And what I mean by that is they had a number range from 1 to 5.
So 1 would be, we can probably solve this overnight, and 5 would be, it's probably not worth you even spending
any money on this case because we probably-- there's no chance we're going to be able to solve this case.
So as they reviewed Sherry's case, they came back to me, before we decided to go this route,
they came back to me and said, we have given this case a 4-minus. So it definitely caused a little pause,
but we have to do whatever we can in any of these types of cases and think outside the box.
It was a 4-minus, but it wasn't a 5, so that gave me some hope that we might be able to do something with this.
So my agency and the sheriff agreed to pay for us to start working on this genetic genealogy
with Parabon. We need hundreds of thousands of genetic markers that are called SNPs.
So Parabon analyzed that DNA using a more advanced technology than had been used previously.
That revealed additional information about this individual. It showed us that he was African-American,
and he had some Puerto Rican ancestry as well. PATT MORRISON: Once the police put together
this DNA composite image of the person they were looking for as Sherry's killer, they put it out into the world,
and they got 60 different leads. 60 people called and said, I think I know who that is.
The police did DNA testing on each of those people, and each one of them was excluded as the killer.
NANCY GRACE: It's a devastating blow to the investigation-- over 60 leads from the phenotype snapshot
and not a single DNA hit. Parabon NanoLabs is also utilizing another new technique
to solve cold cases. It's called investigative genetic genealogy. Can this forensic tool finally identify a grandmother,
Sherry Black's killer? That's next on "Bloodline Detectives." [AUDIO LOGO] [AUDIO LOGO]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: South Salt Lake City, Utah, 2018-- detectives investigating the 2010 murder of a 64-year-old
grandma, Sherry Black, Sherry brutally stabbed dead in her own bookstore. The case goes cold for eight years,
even though police have valuable DNA samples from the crime scene. Investigators enlist Parabon NanoLabs to utilize the science
of investigative genetic genealogy in their bid to ID Sherry Black's killer. CECE MOORE: This case took a lot of collaborative work
between the genetic genealogists and Detective Ben Pender. This meant that it took about two years for us to finally
zero in on the right family. So in 2020, the case finally really started moving forward at a fast pace.
And we advised Detective Pender to go out to Sacramento to talk to a family that we thought might be closely
related to the perpetrator. BEN PENDER: One of the individuals that was already on the list that she had asked me to go
talk to had, all of a sudden, kind of rose to the top of the list. Another distant relative had put their information
into GEDmatch, which actually brought us a lot closer to this individual. And I was informed this person was residing in the Sacramento,
California area, and was asked to travel there and meet and try to obtain ancestry information.
Also, I was aware that there was an adult son, and, again, I was asked to speak with him
and obtain his information and see if I couldn't obtain a reference sample from both him and his mother.
NANCY GRACE: Lead Detective Ben Pender decides to speak to the mother first. CECE MOORE: When she was asked about a potential family member
who may have lived in the Salt Lake City area, she revealed that there was someone from their family
that had been placed for adoption. When this woman's son gave the name of the woman he had
the relationship with that had placed the son for adoption, we jumped into action, and we ended up
finding the obituary for the maternal grandmother of this adopted son. And in that obituary, it actually
says his first and last name. It said Antonio Spencer. I was looking in our databases, and I just could not
find anywhere where there was an individual that would match up in the potential age frame of somebody who could
have committed this crime. So as we kept looking, I came across something with a first name of Adam Antonio Spencer Durborow.
And we were able to determine that he was actually removed, at some point when he was young,
from his mother's custody. He was taken into state custody, had been in foster care,
ultimately was adopted by somebody by the last name of Durborow. And I was able to identify who he was.
It appeared that he was still living in Utah. He was actually residing south of Salt Lake County, about 25
miles or 25 minutes away from where Earl and Sherry's bookstore was located. PATT MORRISON: They had a name, Adam Durborow.
This was going to be their man. But they had to get the evidence to pull it all together.
And what they did was to go after his genetic evidence, his DNA, without him knowing about it.
They knew where he worked. They followed him. They saw him order fast food and go back to work.
He worked at a Walmart. And they went to his car, photographed the contents of his car, which was a lot of junk food containers, fast food
containers, and then were able to get those containers out of his car and take them in for testing.
And things like a soda straw showed that exactly what they had predicted was going to be through the testing was true,
that Adam Durborow was their man. The Bloodline Detectives have finally ID'd a prime suspect.
His name.? Adam Durborow. Now they've got to catch him. BEN PENDER: As Adam was walking into the Walmart,
there were six or seven plainclothes detectives. We had identifiers on jackets and things
such as that indicating we were the police. Approached Adam. He immediately put his hands behind his back.
He said, I know what this is about. He indicated that he knew this was about the Sherry Black case.
And I get him in my vehicle and let him know that he is under arrest for this homicide
and that we are going to be transporting him back to our office to speak with him.
PATT MORRISON: This was almost exactly 10 years after Sherry's murder. And Adam Durborow was in a solemn frame
of mind, as you would expect, being taken into custody for a murder that had been committed 10 years ago.
And he was informed of his Miranda rights, but gradually, he started to talk to police about himself,
about his family, about his circumstances growing up, and eventually got around to the crime itself.
BEN PENDER: He indicated that he had a therapy appointment around 11:00 or 11:30 that
day in that general location. And as he was walking by, he said he just happened
to notice that bookstore there. He indicated that he had never been in that bookstore before.
He loves books. So he decided to go in and take a look at what kind of books were in that store.
[SOMBER MUSIC] COURTNEY HAWKES: By his own admission, she was kind to him, and that's what set him off.
I also wonder if her Spidey senses, her intuition was kind of telling her that something was off,
and that provoked him or-- I-- I don't know. I don't know. It's-- I don't know. HEIDI MILLER: On October 10, 2020,
they brought us in and told us that they had arrested a person named Adam Durborow in Utah County,
and that he was in custody, and that he had confessed on his way there. COURTNEY HAWKES: My sister and I went to the police station,
and I remember waiting on the lawn for my parents to finish the meeting and my parents coming out and saying,
they got him. They have him. And it was just a huge amount of relief that washed over me,
knowing that the person who had done this to her had been caught. It was a great moment.
For 10 years, you wonder what it's going to be like and how you'll feel when you get that answer.
And you just can't describe it. It was-- it's just-- I still-- I don't have the words for it.
It was just such a relief. So who is Adam Durborow? Investigators dig deep into his past
and get a better sense of who is the alleged killer. That's next on "Bloodline Detectives."
[AUDIO LOGO] [AUDIO LOGO] [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: South Salt Lake City, Utah, 2021,
11 years after the murder of a beloved grandmother, Sherry Black, her killer now in custody.
His name? Adam Durborow. Now, investigators try their best to understand what turned
Durborow into a vicious killer. He had a fairly extensive juvenile criminal history
of some violent crimes and other crimes. His adult history, however, there was only two arrests
that he had, and those were both misdemeanor arrests for theft. So that's all he had as far as his criminal history
goes as him being an adult. HEIDI MILLER: His attorney said that he would plead guilty if we would take the death
penalty off the table. And that was an easy one for us, because if he would plead guilty, then we wouldn't have to do a trial.
And the trial was a thing that I think I was most afraid of, my dad having to testify to finding my mom
and just be up on that stand. And, you know, you never know if there's one jury member
that finds him not guilty. So for me, it was-- I think for our family, it was an easy--
yeah, if he can spend life without parole, happy to take the death penalty off. I feel like it brought closure for our family.
I feel like, yeah, we'll never have my mom back. My dad will never have his wife back.
And that hurts. And that's-- it's really painful. But the 10 years of wanting answers and not getting
answers and always, you know, looking over your shoulder, wondering, is it them?
Is that the person? Are we ever going to find the person? And just the anniversary comes around,
and it opens up the wounds. And so finally having answers has helped us heal and brought us closure.
And I think that day, the sentencing, for my dad, was a day that he could start to really move forward.
This will be something that I will remember my entire life. But the positive, if there is a positive to come out of this,
is the family actually began starting to help others in law enforcement, started a foundation,
and are actually out helping others in these types of cases try to resolve their cases as well.
With all we have learned and all the people that we had met and the resources that we had, my husband and I
felt like we needed to give back and help other families that are experiencing what we experienced.
And so we created the Sherry Black Foundation so that we could help bridge those gaps
and bring law enforcement together and promote collaboration and learning and help families
get their cases solved. My heart always hurt for families who have loved ones that pass away, that get killed, that don't know how
to advocate for themselves or how to get answers or how to get help. And they have to live with what we lived with for 10 years.
And it breaks my heart because it's so painful. It's hard to move forward when you don't have those answers.
So we just always felt like, where we can make a difference and where we can do some good, it's our responsibility.
On May 17 of 2023, the Sherry Black Law was passed in Utah, and it set some parameters in place for law enforcement
to follow, so that there are some rules and guidelines, but it keeps investigative genetic genealogy a useful tool
in Utah to help solve crimes. NANCY GRACE: Detectives reflect on the importance of investigative genetic genealogy
in finally delivering answers to Sherry's family. PATT MORRISON: Could this case have been solved without that?
I don't think so. None of the standard connections and questions-- family, grudges, motives--
none of that happened. It all came up dry. It was just by happenstance that this DNA program, this DNA
technology, could put this together, like solving a puzzle, and come up with Adam Durborow's name.
HEIDI MILLER: I miss everything about her. And it just kind of depends on the time.
I miss just being able to call her and share things with her. I miss sharing-- I have 15 grandchildren now.
And she loved being a grandma, and I wish I could share those grandkids with her.
She would love being a great-grandma to them, and she would love watching me be a grandma.
And I miss being able to share that with her and just conversations. Just-- it was just easy with her.
And I just miss her. NANCY GRACE: There are very few crime victims who are loved so much by so many family members as Sherry Black.
The sudden and horrible death of the 64-year-old grandmother will forever haunt them.
That family pain drove the "Bloodline Detectives" to try every available forensic weapon
until one of those scientific weapons finally catches a killer. I'm Nancy Grace.
Thank you for joining us here on "Bloodline Detectives." [AUDIO LOGO] [AUDIO LOGO]
[THEME MUSIC]

Salt Lake City Utah, 2010, Sherry Black is discovered stabbed to death in her bookstore. Police fail to identify her killer until advancements in DNA science reignites the case.

Brief Summary

Sherry Black's murder in 2010 leads to a decade-long investigation, culminating in the arrest of Adam Durborow through advanced DNA techniques.

Key points

Brutal Discovery. Earl Black returns home to find his wife Sherry brutally murdered in their bookstore.
Community in Fear. The local community fears a killer is among them after Sherry Black's murder.
Detectives Seek Clues. Detectives begin their investigation into Sherry Black's murder, searching for evidence and suspects.
The Impact of Loss. Sherry Black's family and friends come together to mourn her tragic death.
Forensic Advances. Detective Ben Pender explores new forensic techniques to identify Sherry's killer.
The Arrest of Adam Durborow. After 10 years, detectives finally arrest Sherry Black's killer, Adam Durborow.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He kept saying, my wife has been killed.

Patt Morrison describes Earl Black's frantic call to 911.

3:37WatchMay 2, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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