Sarah Michelle Lunde - Suspect who dated girl's mother charged with murder

By: CNN's Susan Candiotti and Sara Dorsey

Monday, April 18, 2005 Posted: 8:59 AM EDT (1259 GMT)

David Onstott confessed to choking Sarah Michelle Lunde to death, police said Sunday.
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TAMPA, Florida (CNN) -- A convicted sex offender faces a court hearing on murder charges Monday in the death of 13-year-old Sarah Michelle Lunde, Florida law enforcement officials said.

David Onstott, 36, was charged with murder Sunday after he confessed to killing the girl, whose partially clothed body was found Saturday in an abandoned fish pond, said Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee.

At the hearing, Onstott is expected to hear the murder charge against him read. He isn't expected to enter a plea. He likely will be asked whether an attorney should be appointed for him.

"He is the defendant," the sheriff said during a Sunday news conference.

In the days after Sarah's disappearance more than a week ago, authorities have been questioning Onstott, who was being held by authorities on unrelated charges.

"The defendant subsequently confessed to the crime post-Miranda," Gee said, referring to the rights suspects must be read for their statements to be admissible in court.

Onstott told police that between midnight and 5 a.m. on April 10, he went to the family's house looking for the victim's mother, who was not at home, Gee said.

The girl, who was alone in the house, invited him inside and became involved in a verbal confrontation with Onstott, which led him to put her in a choke hold, rendering her unconscious "and eventually causing her death," Gee said.

In addition to a charge of first-degree murder, "other charges are being reviewed at this time," Gee said.

Asked what made the man confess, the sheriff said, "I don't know."

Before Gee's announcement, Onstott's attorney denied that his client had anything to do with Sarah's disappearance. Onstott recently ended a relationship with the girl's mother.

Also before the announced charges, Sarah's 17-year-old brother said Onstott was at the family home in Ruskin early last Sunday, hours after his sister was last seen. The brother told police it was the first time he had seen Onstott in months.

Worshippers at Sarah's church remembered her during the weekly service.

"Today she's in a much better place than we," the Rev. Johnny Cook said during services at First Apostolic Church. "She won't have to suffer no more. She's at peace with God."

Her mother, Kelly May Lunde, attended a portion of the informal memorial.

Sarah's disappearance prompted a search focused within a three-quarter-mile radius of her mother's home in Ruskin, about 10 miles south of Tampa. More than 20 law enforcement agencies and 22 search-and-rescue teams from throughout Florida had joined the search.

Gee said the area where the body was found "was searched before at least once earlier in the week" before search dogs led authorities to the body.

Someone had tried to weigh down the body so it would be hidden underwater, law enforcement sources said.

"It was clear from investigators who were at the scene that whoever put her there went to great effort to conceal her body," Gee said. "And right now, we are asking the public if they would assist us in any articles of clothing that you would see in this area."

Mark Lunsford -- father of a 9-year-old girl who went missing in February and was found dead in a nearby Florida community -- also attended Sunday's church service. He had participated in the search for Sarah, along with dozens of volunteers. (Full story)

Onstott was convicted of sexual battery in 1995 for assaulting a female acquaintance in her home. He served six years in prison and two years on probation on that charge, a sheriff's spokesman said.

He was arrested Tuesday in Apollo Beach, Florida, north of Ruskin, on an unrelated charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after deputies said Onstott threatened a man with a screwdriver during an argument.

He was arraigned Thursday for failing to register as a sex offender and also was being held on a drunken-driving warrant from Michigan -- a charge for which he faces an extradition hearing Monday.

CNN's Susan Candiotti and Sara Dorsey contributed to this report.

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