For nearly 31 years, Sharon Henderson fought to find out who killed her seven-year-old daughter. The woman never lost hope that whoever stabbed her child 37 times would be caught and convicted. The criminal was sentenced to 29 years in prison on Tuesday. Asked how she coped with the ordeal, Sharon Henderson replied: “Because Nikki is my little girl and I love her.”
Sharon Henderson has dedicated her entire life to finding out who the killer is. For 30 years she talked about what happened, told what she knew and kept the media attention on this case alive. But despite her appeals and extensive investigation, it was never found who killed Nikki.
On Tuesday, David Boyd, a neighbor who attacked the girl with a brick and stabbed her 37 times before dumping her bloody body in an abandoned building, was sentenced to 29 years in prison.
Asked after the verdict how she found the strength to keep fighting, Sharon Henderson said: “Because Nikki is my daughter and I love her.”
The tragedy happened on the evening of October 7, 1992, when Nikki was playing outside with several friends. A witness then saw her walking alongside a man who was later identified as Boyd. The surveillance footage, which was analyzed by the police, showed the little girl jumping in the play with this man.
Boyd, then 25, lived in the same building as the girl’s family and was the boyfriend of the girl who looked after Nikki. The man easily lured Nikki to an abandoned place behind a building, 300 meters from the building where they lived.
He hit the girl in the head with a brick and then stabbed her repeatedly in the chest, making sure to kill her, according to evidence in the case. He then dragged her into a basement and abandoned her there. Traces of blood were found above the basement, on the walls and steps, indicating that the girl had been dragged there. Neighbors said they heard terrifying screams that night. The girl’s body was found the next morning.
At first, the police wrongly suspected George Heron, who neighbors said was a loner. Judge Mitchell later ruled that Heron was coerced by the police into confessing to the crime, even though he was not the murderer. The man was released in 1993, but his whole life has been turned upside down since then, so he had to go to Ireland.
In 2013, Sharon Henderson stated: “I look at pictures of Nikki and try to think of the happy times and all I can think about is the night she was killed. I can imagine her last words were probably “mom”. I will continue to fight because I don’t want my other three daughters to experience this torment that I am experiencing”.
In 2016, she launched a petition urging police to review the case, and the following year she met with then-Chief Constable Steve Ashman, who authorized a new investigation.
Investigators ran DNA tests and took samples from 839 men and compared them to the samples found on the girl’s clothes. Tests indicated matches to David Boyd, who had at first only been considered a witness. He was arrested in 2018 on suspicion of murder and indicted last year. He had two previous convictions on police records.
On Tuesday, after Boyd’s sentencing, Sharon Henderson, now 55, criticized the fact that the man was not investigated in the first place, even though he had a record.
