By Tony Madden
First-degree murder charges have been filed in the death of Candice Richie, the stepdaughter of former state legislator and city councilman John Sharp, who is also the Telegraph’s regular columnist. Nearly 26 years ago, investigators stated there was not enough evidence in the case for a criminal charge.
A Boone County Grand Jury indicted Sentrell Wilson, an original suspect in the case, on Feb. 24, according to a release from the Missouri Attorney General’s office. The arrest followed a joint investigation by the Missouri Attorney General’s Cold Case Section and the Columbia Police Department.
Wilson was an acquaintance of Richie’s whom she met at a poetry reading, according to her stepfather. At that time, Wilson was a fugitive with an arrest warrant in South Carolina. Wilson was arrested in South Carolina and is in the process of being extradited to Missouri, the release says.
“When he is convicted — and we think the evidence is overwhelming, even though it’s a cold case — at least that will keep him from harming others,” said John Sharp.
Richie, who graduated Hickman Mills High School in 1996, was a senior at MU who was found dead in her Columbia apartment on Feb. 25, 2000. Days earlier, Columbia police were called to Richie’s apartment for a disturbance with Wilson, but neither party made a complaint.
Upon the disturbance call, Columbia police searched for Wilson’s name in the National Crime Information Center’s database, according to a Maneater report from 2000. However, the warrant did not appear because the South Carolina department that issued the warrant did not enter it into NCIC, citing a lack of money and manpower.
Richie died just months before she was scheduled to earn her undergraduate degree in political science from MU. She had plans to go to graduate school, her stepfather said.
Richie’s younger step-brother, Missouri State Rep. Mark Sharp, helped spark a renewed focus on the case last year after meeting with the Columbia Police Department, Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Roger Johnson and officials from the AG’s office. The investigation resumed after these meetings, and Wilson was subsequently arrested and charged with first-degree murder, the release says.
“I am so thankful to the Columbia Police Department that continued to press for this case to be reopened and for the cold case section in the Missouri Attorney General’s Office who took this up, and to the Boone County Prosecutor’s Office,” said John Sharp.
Richie’s body was discovered in a state of decomposition on Feb. 25 after neighbors complained about a foul odor. She was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, her head resting on a pillow on the floor. Richie was covered by a quilt pulled up to her chin. Police determined that Wilson was the last person to see Richie alive.
John Sharp says Wilson introduced himself to Richie under false pretenses. A Columbia Daily Tribune article from March 2, 2000, reports Wilson told Richie he was a New Yorker trying to set up a coffee shop in Kansas City.
“I didn’t know this guy existed before he murdered her,” John Sharp said. “I checked with Candice every week, but I was mainly focused on her grades and things like that. I just didn’t think her life would be endangered at MU.”
In reality, Wilson was in Missouri evading authorities out of Spartanburg, South Carolina. Those charges were related to an incident in which Wilson robbed a Burger King restaurant, stealing $1400 and pistol whipping an employee. Wilson had pleaded guilty and was free on bond at the time of Richie’s death.
Wilson then stole Richie’s car, driving the 1993 Ford Tempo from Columbia to Kansas City, reports say. He then took a bus to Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he turned himself in to serve his sentence for robbery and assault. Wilson was out of prison by 2012, when records show he was cited for a traffic violation.
The autopsy and toxicology report showed no controlled substances in Richie’s system at the time of her death. Then-medical-examiner Jay Dix cited Richie’s death as “probable suffocation,” but no murder charge was filed, according to a March 2000 article from the Columbia Daily Tribune. Kevin Crane, who was Boone County prosecutor in 2000, then told the paper that the conclusion would not result in a murder charge.
“We do not give up on victims. No matter how many years pass, we will keep working to bring violent offenders to justice and provide answers to the families left behind,” said Lt. Matt Gremore of the Columbia Police Department in a written statement Tuesday.
State Rep. Mark Sharp remembers his older sister being very involved in his life. He was 14 years old when Richie died. He remembers having to “grow up fast” after traveling to Columbia with his father to identify Candice’s body. He added he wishes he asked the Columbia Police Department to reopen the case years ago.
“While I’m happy that this is happening now, maybe if we would have pressed this as a family years ago, maybe we could have got the same result much earlier.
John Sharp said his stepdaughter did “everything right.” She helped others and was engaged in her community. She worked with at-risk youth with a number of service organizations and as a candystriper at Research Medical Center. She was committed to civil rights activism, and she even greeted delegates visiting Kansas City as a youth ambassador for the Mayor’s office.
“She was striving to make the world a better place. She wanted people to accept people for who they are,” a long time friend of Richie, Charla Dowdell, told MU’s student newspaper the Maneater in 2000.
Richie has not been forgotten. Not by her family, and not by her communities in south Kansas City or Columbia. Each year, at least one senior at Ruskin High School who is involved in cheerleading, band or volleyball is honored with the Candice Richie scholarship. In 2025, Richie’s name was read aloud as bells rang out and flags were lowered for the MU Remembers ceremony at the University of Missouri-Columbia. A book, “The Spirit of Freedom: Powerful Women of the Civil Rights Movement,” was also dedicated to Richie.
Wilson’s trial date has not yet been set, and the judge has not set bond in the case.
“I think it is very important that people who intentionally hurt people are brought to justice before they can hurt and kill others, because many murderers don’t stop with one,” John Sharp said.