A 59-year-old Florida man was charged Friday by Utah authorities with murder in the first degree — a capital offense punishable by death — for allegedly raping and murdering a 16-year-old Salt Lake City girl in 1977.
Patrick Michael McCabe, of Bell, Fla., also was charged in 3rd District Court with first-degree felony counts of aggravated burglary and aggravated sexual assault in the slaying of Sharon Schollmeyer.
McCabe — who was linked to the crime by DNA — has been arrested in Florida and is awaiting extradition to Utah.
Schollmeyer's body was found Dec. 5, 1977, by her mother, after being let into the apartment by McCabe, the then-20-year-old building manager at 125 E. 1st Ave., charges state.
The victim — an emancipated teen who lived alone at the apartment — was naked in a bathtub filled with 6 inches of water. She was blindfolded with a scarf and gagged with a halter top, charges state.
The halter top yielded DNA which was recently matched to McCabe, charges state.
On Wednesday, McCabe told police that he used a key to enter the girl's apartment, where he woke her and used a butcher knife to gain her compliance while tying her up and raping her, charges state.
He told police that he then took her to the bathtub, where he strangled her and held her head under water, charges state.
shunt@sltrib.com
| Courtesy Salt Lake City Police Sharon Schollmeyers was found in her Apartment in the bathtub naked with water partially filling the tub. The victim was bound with nylons. The Medical Examiner Office confirmed the manner of death as Homicide.