SALT LAKE CITY — A Florida man who allegedly confessed to the rape and murder of a Salt Lake City teenager that occurred in 1977 has been booked into the Salt Lake County Jail.
Patrick Michael McCabe, 59, was extradited to Utah and booked into jail Sunday afternoon. The man spoke with police in Florida Wednesday, where he allegedly admitted to the rape and murder of 16-year-old Sharon Schollmeyer nearly 40 years ago.
Court documents state McCabe was the apartment manager of the building where the victim lived, and there was no sign of forced entry at the residence when police arrived. McCabe was also the person who initially called police to report the discovery of Sharon’s body on December 5, 1977.
The girl was found dead of strangulation in a bathtub with a blindfold on, and she was gagged with a halter top–which would provide a break in the case decades later.
In 1999, McCabe was convicted of a sexual offense against a minor, which resulted in Florida officials entering McCabe’s DNA into an FBI database.
In 2013, a Salt Lake City Police detective submitted the halter top used to gag Sharon for DNA testing, which linked to a single male profile.
In December of 2016, that match was linked to database entry for McCabe. In an arrest warrant filed Wednesday, police state there is probable cause to arrest McCabe for murder, rape and aggravated burglary in Sharon’s death. The man was arrested in Florida and subsequently transported to Utah, where he was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail.
