Reward offered in teacher murder case

A $5,000 reward is being offered to anyone with information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of any person(s) involved in the murder of Enterprise teacher Sara Starr.

The Coffee County Sheriff's Office began an investigation into the murder of Star on Nov. 27. Her body was found by coworkers, according to previous articles by The Southeast Sun.

"The main thing we wanted to get you together for was to advise that Gov. (Kay) Ivey's office has authorized a reward in the amount of $5,000 for the apprehension and prosecution of any person or persons involved in the incident, the death of Sarah Starr," 12th Judicial Circuit District Attorney Tom Anderson said.

During a press conference on Thursday, Jan. 4, Anderson announced the reward and reminded citizens that the investigation is still ongoing.

"We just wanted to take the time to remind the community and the people here in Coffee County that all the agencies involved in this investigation are still meeting regularly, following up on any leads, any avenues that we deem possible," Anderson said.

According to Anderson, the CCSO, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, FBI, SBI, Enterprise Police Department and the District Attorney's Office are all working on the investigation.

Anderson also said two CCSO investigators have been working on this case since the body was discovered.

"Like the DA said, we are working as a team; it's a team effort," Sheriff Dave Sutton said. "Some major entities are in place. Ladies and gentlemen, we are moving forward; we're not moving backwards. We're not stalemated; we're moving forward."

"We feel strongly that we're headed in the right direction, but we do request the public's assistance," he said.

Anderson said public assistance includes any witness accounts from the week of Thanksgiving.

"I am extremely confident that the leads that we're following now are pointing all to the right directions."

He said there are "a few" persons of interests in the case, but none of those individuals have been eliminated.

"We don't want to give any tips as to any suspects that we may be looking at," he said. "We don't want them to be able to retrace their steps and try to take preventative measures to impede an investigation and we don't want them to run."

He said many details about the case could not be shared with the public at this time.

"There are two investigators who have done this full-time since that day," Anderson said. "There have been countless hours that have been exhausted in that regard, but we can't tell the public what we've learned and what we know at this point because it would impede and compromise the investigation. I think if they heard what we know, they would feel better about it, but we're not (able) to do that."

Sutton said he is working to solve the murder of Sarah Starr.

"It is personal to me because she was a member of my community," he said. "When something like that happens in Coffee County, and I'm the senior law enforcement officer, it does bother me and I want to get it solved."

To provide any information, contact the CCSO at (334) 894-5535 or the District Attorney's Office at (334) 347-1142. Sutton said individuals with information pertaining to the case could also contact any law enforcement officer or agency.