‘So good with her two children’: Friends, family describe mom arrested in Baby Horry case
Neighbors had no reason to think Jennifer Sahr was anything other than what they saw — a good mom, a quiet mom, a mom they wouldn’t question.
Not, a mom who allegedly left a newborn to die in South Carolina woods a decade earlier.
Her typical, quintessential life took a turn this week. It went from raising two young children in Florida to an Horry County jail cell. Police say she gave birth to Baby Boy Horry in 2008 and left him in the woods to die. For a decade, Sahr lived her life as police desperately sought her identity.
A year ago, Sahr moved into her Pensacola, Florida home. Her husband is active in the U.S. Navy and neighbors on Prieto Drive say there was never a reason to suspect Sahr was an alleged murderer.
“You wouldn’t suspect any issues with her,” said Steve Adams, who lives a few doors away.
Sahr, 32, was mother to a toddler and one 6-month-old child, Adams said. There was never a moment where Adams said he questioned how Sahr raised her children.
Sahr’s next-door neighbor said there was never a problem with the young family.
“She is so good with her two children,” said a neighbor who declined to provide her name.
The arrest shocked and surprised the neighborhood, emotions that were evident even in phone conversations where voices trailed off. The jumbled thoughts showed how the community was taken aback by the accusations.
“They are very nice,” the neighbor said. “They are good neighbors.”
Myrtle Beach area ties
On Dec. 4, 2008, utility workers found a newborn dead in the woods off Meadowbrook Road in the Conway area. Local officials dubbed the child “Baby Boy Horry” when they were stymied in efforts to identify his mother.
When crews found the baby, Sahr was Jennifer Rickel and a Coastal Carolina University student, likely a sophomore or junior. CCU officials did not respond to multiple requests for information about Rickel’s time at the university. Rickel was named an honor student, making the Dean’s List released in January 2009. She graduated in December 2010.
Jennifer’s husband, Charles Sahr, is a few years older than Rickel, and while both were Coastal Carolina students, they didn’t meet until after college, Sahr’s father, who also goes by Charles Sahr told The Sun News.
“Shocked,” Charles Sahr, the elder, said of his reaction to his daughter-in-law’s arrest.
Charles Sahr spoke only in one-word answers, providing very little insight before saying he was at work and the conversation ended. He said his son, Jennifer’s husband, was the one that broke the news of her arrest.
Paul Puccinelli was a graduate student at Coastal Carolina who got to know Charles and Jennifer Sahr — known to him as Chuck and Jen — when the three were in their mid-20s. Puccinelli didn’t know Sahr when she was a student at Coastal Carolina or when police say she abandoned Baby Boy Horry. Puccinelli, Chuck and Jen hung out with the same friends and spent Sundays watching football at Magoo’s sports bar.
The group was loud and obnoxious, and Jen fit right in, Puccinelli said.
“She blended in with everyone else,” he said.
Jen and Chuck were living in an apartment near the Socastee swinging bridge, Puccinelli said. They might have been working, but Puccinelli said he couldn’t remember where.
Puccinelli moved away from the Grand Strand in 2011 and then Chuck joined the Navy. Puccinelli didn’t see the couple for about five years, until a summer 2018 wedding. Chuck was there with Jen, who was pregnant with her youngest child. Puccinelli said the years calmed some of that attitude that the group had at Magoo’s.
“They were grown up, right,” Puccinelli said. “None of us were 25-year-old kids anymore.”
Investigation becomes an arrest
Local officials — mainly Horry County Coroner Robert Edge — spent years hunting for information about Baby Boy Horry. Their efforts went nowhere and the case became cold. Local motorcycle group Rolling Thunder attended yearly vigils for Baby Boy Horry and tried to keep the case in the public’s mind.
Jennifer Sahr left the Myrtle Beach area and lived in San Diego with Charles before moving to Florida, according to a background report. Sahr has no previous criminal history in South Carolina, outside of a lone $25 seatbelt violation ticket issued in 2011 in Horry County.
Sahr’s lawyer Greg McCollum said she is originally from the Vermont area. Jennifer Sahr has a limited social media presence, but a Pinterest page highlights her interests in cooking, newborn activities and places to visit.
Police officials have released few details about why or how the Baby Boy Horry investigation restarted. Chief Joe Hill said forensic evidence linked Sahr to the case. DNA testing confirmed she is the boy’s mother, the chief said.
“I’m just glad we are able to bring justice to him and the community,” Hill said.
Police detectives joined prosecutors in Horry County on Tuesday to announce they identified Baby Horry’s mother. Police said they were searching for Sahr, who was not at her Prieto Drive home Tuesday. Hours later, authorities arrested her in North Myrtle Beach.
McCollum said after police searched Sahr’s Florida home, she contacted his office. Lawyers told her it would be best for her to get to South Carolina to avoid the extradition process. Sahr drove to North Myrtle and checked into a hotel on Tuesday.
His lawyers planned to have her surrender at J. Reuben Long Detention Center the next morning. McCollum said he spoke to some officers, and they agreed to that plan. But, “higher ups” must have decided differently, McCollum said.
Horry County police officials say with the active warrants, any police officer could have arrested Sahr. When the U.S. Marshals Task Force found her in Horry County, they apprehended the suspect.
McCollum said that his client is presumed innocent, but lawyers haven’t started to review the evidence to say more about her possible defense.
Sahr’s two children are with family members, McCollum said. He added that her family was taking the arrest “very hard as anyone would.”
On Wednesday, Sahr went before an Horry County magistrate, who informed her of her rights and her first court date. The magistrate also said he did not have the authority to set bail because of her charge of homicide by child abuse, which can be punished by life in prison. On Friday, a judge denied setting bond in her case.
McCollum described Sahr’s week as an out-of-body experience where someone is in shock.
“It’s almost hard to believe something like this is happening to you,” McCollum said.
This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 6:26 PM.
