MAN WHO JOINED THE SEARCH FOR HIS DEAD WIFE GETS 59 YEARS
Zarrius Hildabrand filed a missing-person report and joined the search for his wife, knowing she was already dead. An Anchorage judge sentenced him on October 23, 2026, to 59 years in prison, with 25 years suspended.
Judge Peter Ramgren did not soften it. Hildabrand, he said, “never seemed to show concern for anyone other than himself.” He called the behavior “abhorrent,” pointed to an “apparent lack of remorse,” and said Hildabrand acted “intentionally.”
A jury had acquitted Hildabrand of first-degree murder on June 25, 2026. It convicted him of second-degree murder and two evidence-tampering counts, the Alaska Department of Law said.
Saria Barney Hildabrand was 21 and had been married to Zarrius for seven months. On August 5, 2023, the couple went out with friends to celebrate his 21st birthday. They hit Dave & Buster’s and planned to go on to a nightclub, but a bouncer reportedly turned Hildabrand away because he looked drunk, the New York Post wrote.
The group split up. Back at their Anchorage apartment, an argument followed, and the Post said Saria confronted him about infidelity. She was shot in the early hours of August 6, 2023. Her cause of death was described in court as a “penetrating, indeterminate range gunshot wound.”
The 96-gallon garbage can
Hildabrand took the stand and laid out what came next. “The plan was to hide the body of my wife and then clean up the blood off the mattress and the surrounding area,” he testified.
He admitted buying a 96-gallon garbage can to help move her. He also bought cleaning products, including hydrogen peroxide, and said he used them on the mattress and the room around it. About eight hours after the shooting, he used Saria’s phone to message her work colleagues that she would not be in.
Saria was a combat medic in the Alaska Army National Guard. Her body was found in an Anchorage storm drain on August 10, 2023, after she had been missing, Alaska Public Media reported.
Her mother, Meredith Barney, said Hildabrand posted appeals on Facebook and “walked around for hours” looking for her daughter. Prosecutor Brittany Dunlop said he “callously disposed” of Saria’s body.
Family members spoke at the sentencing about Saria as loving and caring, and about what her murder did to them.
Hildabrand must serve at least two-thirds of the prison term before he can be considered for parole. After he is released, he faces 10 years of probation, the Anchorage Daily News wrote.
