Cady Stribling
News Editor
cstribling@murraystate.edu

Sarah Townsend’s best friend sat down with The News for an interview in which he revealed that she knew her alleged killer, Julius Sotomayor prior to her disappearance on March 25.

Townsend’s body was found in a ditch near the Cherry Corner area in Calloway County on Friday morning, March 26. Preliminary autopsy results showed she died of multiple gunshot wounds. 

Julius Sotomayor, 22, of Dexter, Kentucky, was arrested on Saturday, March 27, and charged with murder, tampering with evidence and theft by unlawful taking (auto). Sotomayor is currently being held in the Calloway County Jail on a $1 million bond. 

The news of Townsend’s death rattled the campus community, as it came just a few weeks after a murder-suicide at a private property near Elizabeth Residential College. Local law enforcement officers would not confirm the relationship between Townsend and Sotomayor, but her best friend, Al Lloyd, senior advertising major, said it was not a random murder.

Lloyd said the night before Townsend’s body was found he had planned to cook dinner at her apartment but decided against it because he had a lot of homework.

“I was suspicious the night before because she did ask me to come over to her apartment, but I rejected because I had so much homework to do and I didn’t get that homework done till 4 or 5 that Friday morning,” Lloyd said. “When she stopped talking to me last around midnight, that’s when I looked at the Snap Map and noticed she was in a very, very weird location.”

Lloyd said the location was a weird spot for her to be in, but he brushed it off as Townsend hanging out with a friend. Regardless, Lloyd messaged Townsend and asked how her organic chemistry homework was going, but didn’t get a response. About an hour later at 1 a.m., Lloyd looked at her Snap Map again and it showed the same location, so he sent her another message but still did not get a reply.

“I just brushed it off and remembered it as a yellow flag and I’ll come back to it tomorrow,” Lloyd said. “And that Friday, I just went through the whole day of thinking everything was fine. I didn’t think anything of her at all, nothing bad. I was even wearing her shoes that I still got right now because I was supposed to return them to her.”

Lloyd said he had a normal Friday and even talked to a study abroad ambassador because he and Townsend were thinking of places to study abroad together. It was around 6 or 7 p.m. when a resident adviser asked Lloyd if he’d seen Townsend since she hadn’t shown for her desk shift at College Courts. Once Lloyd heard this, he said he checked Snap Maps and no longer saw her whereabouts but decided to screenshot the weird location to send to her mother.

Townsend’s mother later put out a missing person alert on Facebook. Lloyd said he thought the situation was serious because Sarah never went anywhere without telling her mother. 

A short time later, a coworker showed Lloyd a news article about a body being found in the Cherry Corner area. 

“She told me details of the article then came and showed me the article,” Lloyd said. “I saw Sarah’s crocs and that’s when I cried and called that number to give [police] the details. Her crocs were one of her most distinctive features ever because she was a crocs person.”

Lloyd said he then went to the Murray State police station and talked with Kentucky State Police to give the information he knew. Although police presented the case to him as a missing person, Lloyd said he had suspicions that police were inquiring about a homicide case because many of the questions seemed to encompass more of a homicide case rather than missing persons.

“I was still having hope,” Lloyd said. “I didn’t find out she for sure died until later on this night when I was talking to the RA and her biological mom called and told me. It was just one of those things I was trying to have hope the whole time that she was still alive.”

Lloyd said Townsend met Sotomayor a few months ago through a mutual friend and they began hanging out and playing video games together. Townsend knew about his criminal record and was even trying to help him, Lloyd said, and they had become good friends.

“She was doing so much to make sure he was trying to have a better life because he was fresh out of prison,” Lloyd said. “She was trying to make sure he was doing better and included him into her friend group like she did with me when I first came here.”

The last time Lloyd saw Townsend alive was on Thursday, March 25, outside of Winslow Dining Hall where she and Sotomayor were walking past later in the afternoon. Lloyd said they had a conversation about Lloyd going to work to which Townsend told him goodbye and to have a good day. They messaged each other until later that night when she stopped responding.

Lloyd said Sotomayor had invited Sarah to go to Georgia with him about a week before she died, and Lloyd had talked her out of it. Aside from this, Lloyd himself has wondered what the connection to Georgia is.

“I hate knowing that he’s the one who did it because of how much time she stayed at his house, she was his best friend,” Lloyd said. “She used to pick him up and drop him off at work at 4 a.m. when he had a job. I just… that betrayal is the part that hurts.”

Lloyd met Townsend in Aug. 2018 online and they had become good friends. Townsend was the reason Lloyd came to Murray State, and when they met, Lloyd said Townsend was very shy.

“It took her a while for her to come out of her shell and be the butterfly that she is now, but she always thanked me for doing that,” Lloyd said. 

Lloyd said after he got Townsend out of her shell, she was a fierce friend who even personally helped his mother through a divorce.

“Sarah was one of those people that would help you no matter what you was going through,” Lloyd said. “She was that friend, she was that person, as well as always making sure she got done with her homework and getting everything she needed to get done, done. She was a remarkable soul.”

Many of Townsend’s favorite memories came from taking pictures and hammocking at Land Between the Lakes, as well as being a camp counselor at Holiday Lake 4-H Educational Center. Lloyd said Townsend convinced him and her other friends to join as camp counselors alongside her this upcoming summer.

“She really enjoyed me cooking her grilled cheeses,” Lloyd said. “That was her thing. She always used to say it was the simple things that made her happy. It was grilled cheeses and forehead kisses …those were her favorite things.”

Lloyd said one of his favorite memories with Townsend was when he gifted her with a stuffed octopus that she carried everywhere, as well as the dark sense of humor they shared.

Townsend was also known for her love of all animals. She frequented the ‘cat colony’ in Oakley Applied Science, and Lloyd said one of her goals after finishing veterinary school was to have an army of black cats.

Lloyd also said Townsend wanted to go to Virginia Tech University and become a large animal vet.

“She was an embodiment of pure love and energy for any and all of her friends,” Lloyd said.

Townsend’s cousin, Frankie Brown, said his favorite memory with Townsend was when he picked her up for a Saturday night showing at the Sunchase Cinema in Farmville, Virginia.

“I’ll never forget because when I picked her up, her little brother Sam said, ‘make sure you have her back at a decent hour,’” Brown said. “Of course she was like ‘be quiet, Sam,’ but we had a blast that night. [I] wish we could have done that more.”

Brown said he wants everyone to know that Townsend exemplified what it meant to be a good human. 

“She was selfless,” Brown said. “She was positive. She was genuine. And that’s rare today but my favorite attribute is that she has never met a stranger. Regardless, whether or not she knew you, she would always speak and be encouraging and to me that is what made her special. Still doesn’t feel real.”

Murray State Police Chief Jeff Gentry said the department offers a variety of resources to help students be as safe as possible. On top of providing safety programs, Gentry encourages students to get the LiveSafe app. The LiveSafe app is free and includes features to leave tips through a chat, photo, video and audio options.

“Another very popular feature of LiveSafe is GoSafe,” Gentry said. “This part of the app lets students request a safety escort from our Racer Patrol or lets students ask a friend to watch them walk from one location to another on a map of campus. Parents can also download the app for free and their students can request that they be watched by their parents while walking on campus. The location is not limited to campus, so if their student is driving home for a holiday or the weekend, parents can watch them as they drive to know that they are safe.”

In addition, the University has 38 emergency phones around campus, many of which are the blue light style and are illuminated at night, Gentry said. Over the last few years, the University has undergone a project to replace campus lighting to enhance safety and energy efficiency and many lights have been replaced in the last few months.

“Safety on campus is a partnership.  We can provide a safe environment, but individuals must be responsible for their own safety and the safety of those around them. If you see something suspicious, let us know immediately.  Don’t wait, you’re not “bothering” us at all. You’re helping us to do our jobs.”

The Vigil for Violence Against Women, an event starting on the Quad and moving through campus to Old Spring Lawn, is for the recent acts of violence against women in Murray and nationally. The event will be April 1, from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

The Counseling Center is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. whenever the campus is operating and can be reached at [email protected]

A GoFundMe account has been set up to cover Townsend’s funeral cost. Visit the GoFundMe page, which has raised nearly $8,200.