Sara Ann Lewis Trusty

Case background and investigation

Sara Ann Lewis Trusty was 23 years old when she disappeared in Galveston County, Texas, in the summer of 2002. Some news reports spell her first name Sarah. Little biographical detail about her has been published in the sources available.

According to The Galveston County Daily News, Trusty was last seen on July 12, 2002, riding her bicycle near Algoa Baptist Church in Algoa, a small unincorporated community in the mainland part of the county. CBS News, in a feature on unsolved cases from the region, likewise reported that she was last seen riding her bike in Algoa on that date. Other published summaries of the case place the sighting late in the evening and state that her bicycle was later found at the church, but those details could not be confirmed in news reports.

Fifteen days later, two fishermen found her body on the Texas City Dike, the long levee that extends into Galveston Bay from Texas City. The Daily News reported that the body was decomposed, that her death was ruled a homicide, and that doctors determined she had been dead for more than a week when she was found. The sources reviewed do not state a cause of death.

The Galveston County Sheriff's Office is the agency identified with the investigation, and CBS News published its telephone number for tips on the case. No suspect has been publicly identified in any source reviewed, and no arrest has been reported.

Trusty's death is frequently listed among the cases grouped under the label 'Texas Killing Fields,' a term used for the deaths and disappearances of more than thirty girls and women along the Interstate 45 corridor between Houston and Galveston since the 1970s. The label refers to a geographic pattern and a period of time. It does not mean that the cases are linked to one another or to a single offender, and no official finding connects Trusty's death to any other case.

A 2006 Daily News survey of unresolved deaths and disappearances in Galveston County included Trusty's case, and later compilations continue to list it as unsolved. Public information about the investigation is limited, and no recent official update was found. Anyone with information has been asked to contact the Galveston County Sheriff's Office.