True Crime with Kendall Rae
Young Nurse Disappears on Her Afternoon Jog: The Murder of Sydney Sutherland
08 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What happened to Sydney Sutherland on her jog?
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another year of True Crime with Kendall Rae 2026. Here we are. And thank you so much for joining me. As always, if you're new to the show, then welcome. So happy to have you. Today, we're kicking off the year by talking about a case that so many of you brought to my attention when I covered Eliza Fletcher midway through 2025.
And it's because Sydney's case is very similar. We're going to be talking about 25-year-old Sydney Sutherland and her heartbreaking story. Just like Eliza, she was a young woman who was out on a run when she was murdered. Her story is absolutely heart-wrenching. I mean... It's just so unnecessary and out of nowhere. I mean, no one could have seen this coming.
And I actually mentioned Sydney briefly in the Eliza Fletcher episode. I knew some of the details, but I didn't get fully into it until preparing for this episode. And man, I am just so disturbed and so sad for her family. And I find cases like Eliza's and Sydney's really important to talk about for several reasons. I mean, for starters, these are women who deserve to be remembered, of course.
And I want to highlight them for who they were, not just what happened to them, not just the headlines surrounding their names. And both of their cases highlight the importance of personal safety, specifically runner safety. And obviously, being abducted while on a run is something that disproportionately affects women.
And as much as I hate that the responsibility gets put on us, it is on us, really, to learn how to better protect ourselves. That's just the world we live in. We have to be prepared. It's the sad reality of things. And I know every time I cover a case like this and I talk about this, people are like, it shouldn't be our fault. It shouldn't be our responsibility. And I agree with you.
I'm not trying to scare people. I'm not trying to tell people not to run or not, you know, to go outside and be scared. athletic or to hike, but it is important to know the facts and know how to protect yourself.
I mentioned this in Eliza's video, and I'm not currently running because I'm very pregnant, but when I do run, I always do it on the treadmill inside because I feel scared to run outside, and I hate that we live in that world. And if running outside I know can be So nice for you. It's actually a goal of mine to eventually start to do that one day. I know it can be such a relaxing thing.
So good for your mental health. And I don't want to discourage anyone from doing that. I'm just talking freely about how I feel.
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Chapter 2: How did the community respond to Sydney's disappearance?
I mean, it's terrifying learning about these cases and These women never thought what happened to them would happen. You know, it was just never a thought for them when they put on their shoes and left on their run that they wouldn't be coming home. We'll, of course, talk more about this later. We'll talk more about personal safety and runner safety.
But first, of course, I want to start out by talking about Sydney because, wow, What an amazing young woman. Sydney Claire Sutherland was born on September 18th, 1995 in Jonesboro, Arkansas. And she was the youngest child and only daughter to her parents, Maggie and Dion. She had two big brothers, Tyler and Sam.
And she was actually the only girl on both sides of her family, which made her extra special. They all said that she was sort of the boss and the glue of their family, keeping them together. And from everything I read, there's just no end to how great of a person she was.
Her loved ones have shared so many things about her online that have made it really quite easy to see how big of a heart Sydney had. And she was just someone who seemed to have loved unconditionally. She was sort of a natural born caretaker. In fact, she actually went into nursing right out of high school. And I think that was the perfect time. perfect career choice for her.
She got her LPN license, and then she went on to get her RN license at ASU Newport shortly after that. And she was extremely driven, and it seems like her calling was really to take care of people. Her senior quote was, the meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. I had never heard that quote before, and I think it's so beautiful.
And I think that's exactly what she was doing while working as a nurse. Looking after others was definitely her gift, and nursing was her way of giving that gift to others. And it wasn't just her patients that she extended this kindness towards. It was everyone in her life, but especially her nieces. Sydney's nieces were basically her whole world.
She loved them so much, and they called her Aunt Sassy because of her nickname. Much like her personality, it had always been Sassy. And according to her mom, Sydney was someone who you could just tell loved life. She loved being around others and just enjoyed what every day brought her.
In between her boyfriend Alex and her dogs, her family, and her job, Sydney's life couldn't have been trending more favorably. In fact, in August of 2020, she had just come home from a family vacation at her favorite place in Florida, so... Things were feeling especially good, you know, after getting some time on the beach. But that is until the day after they returned.
Because on that day, August 19th, Sydney went out for a run and she never came back. The 19th was a Wednesday and Sydney didn't have work that day. So she spent the day doing things that she loved.
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Chapter 3: What evidence led to the investigation of Quake Lewellyn?
She went and worked out with her trainer. She was very active. She did that for about an hour. And then she also went to her mom's house. And it didn't matter that she was just on vacation with her mom. She loved being with her mom. The two of them were extremely close. They were really best friends. And that is one of the elements of this case that has made it just so heartbreaking.
They saw each other at least every two days at a minimum. And if they didn't see each other every day, they would talk on the phone. My three cats are part of our family. We love them dearly. And now they are all seniors. So I want them to have the best food possible. But for years, they would not eat any wet food brands. I would buy them the nice, you know, healthiest options on the market.
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Chapter 4: What were the circumstances of Sydney's abduction?
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Receive 30% off your first subscription order. Go to armra.com slash tckr or enter tckr to get 30% off your first subscription order. That's A-R-M-R-A dot com slash tckr. So anyway, she ends up leaving her mom's house and she tells Maggie that she's going home and that she's going to bake some cookies or brownies. And she also told her mom that she was going for a run.
And yes, I know she had already worked out that day for an hour, but it didn't matter. Her mom pointed that out as well. But Sydney loved to run. It actually relaxed her. It was something she just enjoyed so much. So even though her mom had told her she should take it easy, she went anyway.
And according to her boyfriend Alex, who she was living with at the time, Sydney left for her run sometime around 2 p.m. Alex's dad had already picked him up and taken him to work, but they had been Snapchatting, so he knew approximately when she left the house. But not long into this run, Sydney stopped replying to him. And at first, Alex didn't overthink it.
He knew that he would be home from work at 5 and he would see her when he got back. However, she was still gone when he returned, and it only took a minute for him to realize something was wrong. And not only was she not home almost three hours later, but her purse and her keys were right where she had left them. And mind you, they live in rural Arkansas. This is farming country.
So it's not like Sydney could have or would have gone somewhere without those things, right? And so because of that, Alex frantically calls Maggie, her mother, home. and asks if she's with her, because that's really the only scenario that made sense in his mind, but she wasn't.
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Chapter 5: What did Quake Lewellyn claim about the incident?
I've never seen this done before, but they basically knew that her phone was connected to her car via Bluetooth. So they had this idea to drive around the area and, you know, specifically where she would run. And then they would call the phone and hope that the call would connect to the car and that would tell them if she was in that immediate area.
Now, this unfortunately didn't end up working, but yeah, I thought it was a good idea and something for people to remember. They also tried to gain access to her laptop so they could see if they could find her phone location that way, but it sounds like that didn't work either, unfortunately. And when it came to law enforcement, they wasted really no time getting started with a ground search.
Of course, it started out at Sydney's house and fanned out from there, and they made sure to check the route that she would typically run. And like I said, this is a rural farming area, so that region in general is just pretty desolate. Sydney would normally leave her house and jog down County Road 41, which about a half mile from her house turns from a paved road to a dirt road.
And if you're watching this episode, you can get a pretty good idea of what it looks like. But If you're not, just imagine a dirt road with flat plains on either side. It's not somewhere that has any kind of surveillance video, obviously, so if someone disappears from around there, the likelihood of it being seen are pretty slim.
Therefore, it was super important that they got as many people out there as possible, as many bodies, as much help as they can when they're physically combing the area. They utilized helicopters and canines, and they also leaned heavily on the community, which thankfully sounds like a wonderful community. It's a very tight-knit group of people, very small.
These people are definitely willing to help because Grubbs, the city that she lived in, had a population of like 500 people. So when one person disappeared, obviously this was... Just a wild moment for everyone. I mean, no one saw something like this coming and everyone sort of felt the impact.
In fact, the sheriff at the time, David Lucas, was personally connected to the case because he knew Sydney and her family. Not only had his kids grown up going to the same school as her, but his daughter dated one of her brothers. And he says that as soon as he got the call, That Sydney was missing, he just knew he was going to do whatever it takes to try and find her.
And really the whole community sort of brought that energy. During the first day, over 150 people came out to help search for her. And if you put that... You know, into the lens of there only being 500 people there, 150. I mean, that's a lot. That's more than what, 20%? That's like 25%, 30%? I'm so bad at math. So yeah, that is 30% of the city of Grubbs, which is pretty incredible.
And on top of that, someone made a missing persons poster. And tons of people were sharing her information online, just hoping that they could spread the word about Sydney as quickly as they could. And they knew based on some ring camera footage, her brother found that she was wearing a white tank top, black shorts, and pink shoes.
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Chapter 6: How did investigators finally find Sydney's body?
aren't many cell phone towers out there and so that ping was not a very accurate description of her last known location everyone did everything they could that day but unfortunately eventually the sun set and it was really really dark out there so law enforcement had to call off the search for the day it was impossible to keep looking for her they had to put their efforts on pause just for the night because reality is they needed to be able to see where they were going
Now, her brothers and some of their friends, on the other hand, never stopped looking, and it sounds to me like not her family and not even Sheriff Lucas were able to sleep that night. Maggie says that she was terrified that she would never see her baby girl again, and she just...
over the idea that Sydney may be out there calling for her, that she couldn't hear her, she couldn't get to her, she couldn't help her, and truly this fear was felt by everyone, and the determination to find her picked up early the next morning, as soon as the sun was out. and that included law enforcement looking closely at Sydney's inner circle.
However, after questioning her family and her boyfriend, it was obvious that nothing had been going on in her life that would point to any of them being responsible. Of course, they definitely questioned Alex particularly hard, being her partner, but they felt that he was being honest about the status of their relationship,
Not to mention the fact that he was at work, so he had a rock solid alibi. Meaning that whoever took Sydney was likely someone who she didn't know. Or at least someone that wasn't in her inner circle, which, of course, made this even harder. And investigators, of course, thought one thing that's really going to help us here is if we can find her cell phone.
Because if they could track that, their hope was that... it could lead them to her. And thankfully, with the help of Apple, they did manage to find it that day. They were able to pinpoint a much more accurate location for it on the 20th. And when members of the search team went there, Sydney's phone was found almost right away.
And what shocked everyone, though, was the fact that it was only a tenth of a mile from her house, and it was in perfect condition. There was no damage to it at all. They could even see that an audiobook that she had been listening to was on pause. And this told them two things. One, that she was almost done with her run. She was almost home when she was abducted.
That location was about 300 yards south of that overpass and super close to her house. And then two, she likely put that audiobook on pause so that she could talk to someone and that someone was probably the person who abducted her. Who that person was, though, was still a complete mystery. However, they did get a big lead that day.
After seeing all the attention in the media, a UPS driver came forward to say that she remembered seeing Sydney on County Road 41 at 2.30pm on the day that she went missing. The driver saw her on her way to make a delivery, which she remembered because she had slowed down to avoid dusting her out or the truck kicking up too much dust.
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Chapter 7: What was the outcome of Quake Lewellyn's trial?
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RocketMoney.com slash Kendall Ray. Investigators previously knew that she didn't open a Snapchat that her friend sent her at 2.41 p.m., which meant there wasn't about an 11-minute window when she was taken. And honestly, when the public first heard about the UPS driver, there was... you know, understandably, some skepticism about her possible involvement.
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Chapter 8: How is Sydney's memory honored by her family and community?
He was on his way to check the wells and the rice fields, and he saw Sydney running on County Road 41. He claimed that he didn't stop and that he didn't see her when he drove back down the road about 20 to 25 minutes later. And keep in mind, Quake actually knew Sydney. They were a couple of years different in age. He was older than her, but they had gone to the same high school.
So it's not like he could have, you know, mistaken her for someone else. But unlike the UPS driver, investigators were not so sure that Quake was telling them the truth. They were, of course, asking people in the community who they thought may have done something like this. And Quake's name just kept coming up. People had some strange things to say about Quake as well.
According to Alex, Sydney's boyfriend, who had hung out with Quake in a group setting on a few different occasions, there were rumors that this dude would eat roadkill. and that he would even put animals in the microwave to watch them die. Of course, I don't know if any of that's true, but if it is, oh my god.
And then there were also allegations that he previously stalked a young woman, and that he had been caught peeking into bedroom windows. So yeah, I can see why people were thinking maybe it was Quake. And investigators felt wary of him right away. And listen to how creepy this is.
When word got out that Quake could have possibly been the last person to see Sidney, Maggie actually confronted him about it. Very brave. And she didn't do it in an aggressive way by any means. She just wanted to ask him directly what he saw. Well, all he told her was that, yes, he saw her running, but that was it. That's all he saw. And then he gave her a hug and said, I hope you find her.
And this all happened at the command post. And Maggie said that the second the interaction was over, she had a sinking feeling that he knew more than what he was saying. And the following day, on the 21st, That proved to be true. Now, once Quake's adoptive dad got word that Quake was the last person to see her, he ended up reaching out to law enforcement himself.
And he basically was like, why don't I bring him in? We'll come sit down for a formal interview and you guys can talk to him and see that he's innocent. And the investigators and the sheriff were like, absolutely, come on in, let's settle this. So they went in and at first he stuck to the same story that he saw Sidney running and nothing else.
And then he consented to letting them search his truck, which I'm sure had him shitting bricks. Because as soon as they examined it, it was obvious that his car was involved in Sidney's disappearance. because not only was there a dent on the front of the hood, which was consistent with hitting someone, but they also found evidence of what looked like blood on the back tailgate.
Plus, there was hydraulic fluid poured in the back as well, suggesting that he was attempting to cover something up. And if that wasn't damning enough, his dad, who was still under the impression that Quake was innocent, offered up his phone. He said, you know, this should clear things up, right? He couldn't imagine that his son could be involved in this.
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