Chambers County – When 48-year-old Sarah Hartsfield was indicted for murdering her fifth husband in February, stories from across the country about the mother of four’s past started surfacing and unraveling a twisted web.
From her little brother’s bizarre death in 1990 to a murder plot she allegedly concocted, and even the fatal shooting of a fiancé, KPRC 2 has been uncovering more about Hartsfield every step of the way.
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Sarah has not been arrested or charged in connection with the death of any person other than Joseph Hartsfield. Sarah is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
This in-depth, special look at the case comes as Hartsfield is indicted for murder, awaiting trial in Chambers County, and in jail on a $4.5 million bond.
Husband #1
“So even in high school, did it seem like, boy craziness?” KPRC 2′s Bryce Newberry asked Charissa Farris, Sarah’s classmate.
“Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I can’t say anything because I was boy crazy. But yes … she liked that attention,” she said. “She didn’t want you in the way. If she liked a boy, you knew it. And so I knew she wanted to have a serious relationship with someone.”
At Green Ridge High School in Sedalia, Sarah met her first love Titus Knoernschild.
“When I first met Sarah, she seemed to be a very, very nice, attentive person,” he said. “What I liked, she liked. She was fun to hang out with.”
After he graduated high school, they married in September 1993.
Sarah’s foster mother, Barb Stuart, and her husband participated in the couple’s wedding. He walked Sarah down the aisle.
The couple moved to Fort Hood, Texas, after Knoernschild finished basic training.
“As the months drug on, she started to change a little bit slowly, a little bit at that time, just getting more controlling,” Knoernschild said. “We were arguing, fighting all the time.”
Stuart was aware of some of the relationship problems.
“She’d break up, date other people, and then come back and I’d date her again. By that time, I loved her and she was in my head,” Knoernschild said.
Their marriage ended in infidelity, he said. They divorced in 1995.
Her next husband was his best friend.
Husband #2
The marriage didn’t last long.
For a period, the couple lived in an apartment in west Harris County.
In 1996, records show Harris County prosecutors charged Sarah with assault.
“She was mad about the situation. She couldn’t believe she got arrested because she said he hit her, and she threw a phone at him and something like that and just some kind of fight,” Stuart said.
The case was dismissed, and she was released the same day, according to a source.
Click on the graphic below to learn more about Sarah’s complicated past relationships.
