Justice for Sheryl

The night before it had rained and the temperature was a wet 46-degrees. That led police to believe they had another case of death by exposure. It had happened twice before in the last three years at the homeless encampment.

At first investigators held what information they had close to their vest. They told reporters to for the local newspaper the homeless woman had been found inside her tent, fully clothed.

Within three days that would change.

Not only would the county medical examiner find an extreme amount of bruising, the doctor also discovered she had been sexually assaulted and this may have contributed to her death. Police would also make an arrest in the case.

Sheryl Sanders-Dickson’s rib-cage showed signs of trauma, leading investigators to conclude she was tortured by way of heavy compression. She also suffered a punctured lung, though authorities have not yet concluded how this puncture happened.

With the new disclosures being made in Sheryl’s death, investigators were forced to release information contradicting what had been reported previously. Her partially clothed body was found hidden under a sleeping bag, and it was evident she had been attacked while unconscious.

Authorities now say that the brutalization of Sheryl was of such a massive nature that no-one would have willingly submitted themselves to such treatment. Toxicology reports are pending, though officials say the outcome doesn’t appear to be a contributing factor to her death, other than leaving her unable to defend herself.

Sheryl lived behind the Safeway Store along with other homeless people, all doing their best to survive. Also living at the same encampment was a transient by the name of Robert Randolph.

Randolph is known to the local law enforcement community. Four years earlier Randolph was found not guilty of second-degree murder.

The 47-year-old man was accused of body-checking John Waid the year before. Waid fell, hit his head and died eight days later.

Randolph has been charged with first-degree burglary, rape, sexual penetration with a foreign object and sodomy with a foreign object. He has not been charged with Sheryl’s murder.

Sheryl was a naturally beautiful woman, who had fallen on hard times. Her friends and family regarded her as good-natured and always happy, willing to help out another person when she had so little herself.

Sheryl was a graduate of Del Norte High School, class of 1978. She was only 50 years old.

Several bunches of flowers now grace the camp site where she died so violently.