Soldier says accused wife killer admitted, I did what I did

A fellow Army soldier’s recollection may be the closest thing prosecutors have to a confession in the case against Zarrius Hildabrand. First Sgt. Toby Howry testified that Hildabrand said, “I did what I did,” a line the state is likely to treat as quasi-confession evidence as it tries to prove Saria Barney’s death was murder, not suicide.

Hildabrand has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence. Anchorage police said an Alaska grand jury indicted him on Aug. 18, 2023, under APD case 23-25464, after Barney was reported missing on Aug. 7, 2023. Prosecutors have argued that Hildabrand waited about 30 hours to report her missing after saying he last saw her on Aug. 6, 2023, and that he told investigators he held off because he feared a “freak accident.”

Howry’s testimony matters because it places Hildabrand’s words and behavior in the critical hours after Barney vanished. Court TV reported that Howry, a friend and Army colleague, went to the couple’s home on Aug. 7 intending to help search for Barney after she was reported missing. That gives the state a witness who knew Hildabrand personally and can describe what he said while the missing-person clock was still running.

The broader case has also been built from the physical trail around the apartment complex. Prosecutors have shown surveillance video, a handwritten note allegedly written by Hildabrand saying he was not mentally strong enough to handle what was happening, and purchases that included a trash can and hydrogen peroxide. Court TV reported that Barney’s body was later found hidden beneath a pillow inside a drainpipe behind the apartment complex.

Saria Barney’s family has put a human face on the timeline. Her mother, Meredith Barney, testified that Saria and Zarrius met in boot camp, where he was in the U.S. Army and Saria had enlisted in the Alaska Army National Guard to become a combat medic. Meredith Barney said Saria was excited about Zarrius’s 21st birthday and about her own planned 40th-birthday trip.

Court TV reported the couple had been out with friends on Aug. 5, 2023, to celebrate Hildabrand’s 21st birthday, and outside coverage has said they had been married less than eight months when Saria died. In a case that started with a missing-wife report and now hinges on a soldier’s words, the state is trying to turn timing, physical evidence and a single sentence into proof of murder.