Profile

Name: David Onstott
Sex: Male
Race: White
Age Now: 39
Hair (Color, Description, Facial Hair): Black
Wanted for: Murder, Hillsborough County, FL; Apr 09, 2005

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Case Story

Onstott On Trial In Girl's Disappearance And Murder

According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, on Saturday, April 9, 2005, Sarah Lunde went on an overnight trip to a mission camp with a youth group from the First Apostolic Church in Ruskin, Fla. Her mother went out of town, not expecting Sarah home until Sunday evening. But deputies say Sarah showed up at the family home, where she lived with her mother and three brothers, around 9 p.m. that Saturday. Sarah asked her brother, 17-year-old Andrew Lunde, to get her something to eat. Investigators say he left for a restaurant and then hung out with friends until about 4 a.m. When he got home, he says Sarah was gone. Andrew came home before dawn Sunday, April 10 to find the front door open and Sarah gone. He told a local TV station that he saw a friend of his mother's in their home just hours after Sarah disappeared. That man is 36-year-old David Onstott, and authorities say he is a registered sex offender. When her mother, Kelly May, got home Sunday, she says she assumed Sarah was spending the night with a friend. Kelly May showed up at Beth Shields Middle School Monday to see if Sarah had made it to class, and reported her missing when she learned no one had seen her. Andrew told a local TV station that Onstott was in their home around 5 a.m. the night Sarah disappeared. Andrew says Onstott took a bottle of Budweiser or Bud Lite from the home, and left when he realized May was not home.

Cops Say Onstott Had Other Outstanding Charges

The sheriff's office says Onstott was arrested the night of April 12, 2005 in Apollo Beach, Fla., north of the girl's hometown of Ruskin, on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. According to deputies, Onstott had threatened a man with a screwdriver during a heated argument.

Lots of Help, Tragic Ending

The search for Sarah had been intense. Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Deputies on horseback, K-9 units and dozens of volunteers combed through the brush and walked the river banks of rural southeast Hillsborough. A mobile command center was stationed at the nearby First Apostolic Church, and a sheriff's office helicopter circled overhead. According to the Sheriff's Office, Sarah had run away from home before, typically after fights with her mom.  But they say she always returned after a few hours. Among the hundreds of volunteers that showed up before dawn Thursday morning, April 14, was Mark Lunsford.  Lunsford is the father of 9-year-old Jessica, who was kidnapped and found murdered in Homosassa, Fla. The searchers' worst fears were confirmed when investigators found a body partially submerged in a pond a half mile from the Lunde home on Saturday, April 16. That body was soon identified as that of Sarah Lunde.