Berkshire County and Bennington County, Vt. — On Tuesday, December 9, David Allen Morrison, 65, pleaded guilty to charges of murder and kidnapping in two separate cases from several decades ago.
According to a press release from the Berkshire County District Attorney’s Office, in Berkshire Superior Court in Pittsfield on the morning of December 9, Morrison pleaded guilty to the 1981 kidnapping of Laura Sheriden.
On June 23, 1981, 15-year-old Sheriden was walking home from Pittsfield to Lanesborough when she was offered a ride home by Morrison, a passerby. Morrison drove past her house, and after realizing she was in danger, Sheriden was able to escape Morrison’s car when pulled over at a rest area on Route 7 in New Ashford.
In the afternoon of December 9, 2025, in Bennington Criminal Division Court in Bennington, Vt., Morrison pleaded guilty to the murder of Manchester, Vt., resident Sarah Hunter.
On September 19, 1986, Hunter, 32, was reported missing by a coworker at the Manchester Country Club after not reporting to work that day. Her body was found in a wooded area of Pawlet, Vt., on November 27, 1986.
Morrison eventually left Vermont and moved to California.
He was serving a life sentence in California for various kidnapping, attempted murder, and sexual assault charges in a 1988 case separate from the two aforementioned cases.
On Wednesday, December 10, representatives from the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office and the Bennington County State’s Attorney’s Office held a joint press conference at the offices of the Bennington Criminal Division in Bennington, Vt.
At the press conference, it was announced that Morrison was sentenced to life without parole for the murder of Hunter and two to four years for kidnapping Sheriden.
Bennington County State’s Attorney Erica Marthage spoke about Hunter’s murder, holding a photograph of her as she talked about the case. “This is Sarah Hunter, and in the fall of 1986, she was in the prime of her life,” she said. “She was a golf pro, a daughter, a sister, a friend, and a partner. That life ended when she was murdered in the small community of Manchester. This conviction brings a modicum of closure to the people of Manchester for the crime that changed our community forever. Manchester was changed on that Sunday afternoon when a well-known community member went missing and was not found for more than two months.”
Marthage said a newfound “sense of fear and uncertainty around the safety” the community had enjoyed for many years prior to Hunter’s murder “changed us forever.”
Berkshire District Attorney Timothy Shugrue said the collaboration of law enforcement groups from both Massachusetts and Vermont “demonstrates the immense potential for success in solving cases when we work together.” “The Berkshires are in a unique geographic location as we share borders with Connecticut, New York, and Vermont,” he said. “The defendant in this case lived in Vermont and drove to the Berkshires and Berkshire County on his way to work in Connecticut. This extensive route of daily travel shows that our case would have been much more difficult to solve if we had worked in isolation. Thanks to our collaboration between our agencies, we’re able to solve not one but two unresolved cases.”
He added that the Massachusetts State Police’s Unresolved Case Unit was critical to solving Sheriden’s case. “I cannot imagine what Laura and Sarah’s family must be feeling,” Shugrue said. “They have waited almost 40 years to find the answers to the violent acts committed against them and their loved ones. While I’m certain yesterday’s [court] hearings were difficult, I hope this long overdue delay of justice brings some closure to these horrific experiences.”
