Murder of Zoe Sarnacki

Zoe Sarnacki was an 18-year-old former Deering High School student who worked at Bagel Works in Portland's Old Port district. She was described as having a vibrant, positive personality with interests in world religions, cultures, and travel, and was living in South Portland, Maine, at the time of her death.

Sarnacki met Chad Gurney, then 29, at a tattoo shop in the Old Port in late March 2009. Gurney was a former Liberty University lacrosse player who had suffered severe injuries, including a head injury requiring 20 surgeries, in a 2005 van crash in Alabama involving his lacrosse team, and had received a multimillion-dollar insurance settlement as a result. In May 2009, after Gurney returned from a trip to Vancouver, Sarnacki told him she had been intimate with another man during his absence. Gurney had asked her to quit her job and travel with him to Thailand, which she declined to do.

On May 25, 2009, firefighters responding to a fire at Gurney's Cumberland Avenue apartment found Sarnacki's charred body with her head severed; a crucifix and other items had been placed on or around the body. Gurney told detectives he had strangled Sarnacki, cut off her head with a knife, purchased gasoline at a nearby station, poured it on her body, and set it on fire before driving to a motel in Old Orchard Beach, where he was arrested.

Gurney waived his right to a jury trial and was tried before Cumberland County Superior Court Justice Roland Cole. His defense argued he was not criminally responsible by reason of insanity, contending that his 2005 head injury and withdrawal from prescription medications caused a psychotic break. Prosecutors countered that Gurney was angry over Sarnacki's infidelity and refusal to travel with him, and that he had begun planning an insanity defense within hours of the killing. On February 4, 2011, Justice Cole found Gurney guilty of murder and arson, ruling that although Gurney had personality disorders, he understood his actions were wrong. In March 2011, Gurney was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the murder and 10 years for arson.

Gurney appealed his conviction to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, arguing that computer evidence should not have been admitted at trial. On February 7, 2012, the court unanimously upheld his conviction.

Sarnacki's family settled a wrongful death civil lawsuit against Gurney for $1.35 million, paid from his insurance settlement.

The case prompted a legislative response: a bill titled "An Act To Give Judges Greater Flexibility When Sentencing Defendants Convicted of Murder" was introduced, adding "extreme mistreatment of the body of the victim after the death of the victim" as an aggravating circumstance that could justify a life sentence. The bill's summary explicitly cited the Gurney sentencing as its impetus. A vigil for Sarnacki drew more than 150 people and was described as the largest domestic violence victim vigil held in Portland up to that time.