Soldier admits plan to hide wife's body after fatal shooting allegation

Zarrius Hildabrand told jurors in Anchorage that after finding his wife shot in bed, he planned to hide her body and clean the blood from the mattress and surrounding area. The Army soldier, who is charged in Saria Barney’s death, said he was overwhelmed by guilt, shame, nausea and emotional numbness, but denied that he was the person who killed her.

Hildabrand admitted he had been cheating on Barney with a woman from his past, and he said Barney confronted him about the affair. Prosecutors said the couple spent the night of Aug. 5, 2023, celebrating Hildabrand’s 21st birthday, stopping at Dave & Buster’s and trying to get into a club before a bouncer turned them away because he already appeared intoxicated. Prosecutors said that after they returned home, he shot her and then hid her body in a drain pipe behind the apartment complex.

Barney was last seen alive that night, and her body was later found hidden beneath a pillow inside a drainpipe. Hildabrand did not report Barney missing until about 30 hours after he said he last saw her on Aug. 6, 2023. The state says he waited because he feared it might be a “freak accident.”

Barney was an Alaska Army National Guard combat medic, while Hildabrand was an Army soldier assigned to work in Alaska. The two had married in Utah about eight months before her death, after Barney, who was born in Idaho, had spent several years in Utah. Hildabrand faces charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence.

Meredith Barney, Saria Barney’s mother, testified in the Anchorage trial. The trial began on June 11, nearly three years after Barney’s death.