Suspect in ’01 killing to take a polygraph

Police say the body of the victim would be nearly impossible to locate.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — David Sharpe, the suspect in the 2001 bathtub drowning and dismemberment of 15-year-old James P. Higham, will take a lie-detector test, according to a court document filed Friday.

The prosecution and the defense have agreed that Sharpe, 45, of Pyatt Street, will take the polygraph examination regarding the murder charge, but the test hasn’t been scheduled, according to the filing by Jennifer L. McLaughlin, assistant Mahoning County prosecutor.

“Both parties anticipate that the results of the polygraph examination may lead to a resolution of this case,” McLaughlin wrote.

Police believe Sharpe drowned the boy in a bathtub on or about June 15, 2001, after a domestic dispute at a Manchester Avenue residence.

The body was dismembered and disposed of in trash bins on the city’s South and West sides and taken to the Carbon Limestone landfill in Poland, prosecutors say. Police believe the body is buried 200 feet below the landfill’s surface and would be nearly impossible to locate.

Sharpe’s then live-in girlfriend, Jennifer L. Snyder, 35, didn’t report the boy missing until Jan. 3, 2002.

Snyder, who has pleaded guilty to gross abuse of a corpse and child endangering and been sent to prison for four years, has given police a videotaped statement and will be the prosecution’s main witness against Sharpe if his case goes to trial.

Based on Snyder’s statement, Sharpe was indicted on the murder charge in November 2007.

Sharpe’s jury trial is scheduled for Nov. 10 before Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.