On October 3, 1996, the body of 29-year-old Sharon Kay Hammack, a female, was discovered by a delivery driver in a field in Caledonia Township, located in Kent County, Michigan. Her body had been wrapped in a blanket, and an investigation later revealed the brutal nature of her death. Hammack had been sexually assaulted, hogtied, stabbed, and strangled. At the time of her murder, she was a mother of two and was pregnant with her third child. For years, her case remained unsolved, one of several cold cases involving the deaths of women in the Grand Rapids area during that time.
For nearly 26 years, the investigation into Sharon Hammack's death yielded no significant leads, leaving her family without answers. The turning point in the case came with advancements in DNA technology. Using forensic genetic genealogy, investigators were able to create a profile from the DNA evidence that had been collected from the crime scene. This cutting-edge technique ultimately led them to a suspect: Garry Dean Artman, a 64-year-old long-haul truck driver who was living in Florida but had resided in Michigan in the mid-1990s. Artman had a history of violent crime, including a previous conviction for sexual assault.
In August 2022, Garry Dean Artman was located and arrested in Mississippi. He was extradited back to Michigan to face charges for the murder of Sharon Hammack. The charges against him included open murder, felony murder, and first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Following his arrest, it was also revealed that Artman's DNA had been linked to another homicide case from 2006 in Maryland. After a trial, Artman was found guilty of the rape and murder of Sharon Hammack and was sentenced to life in prison. A few months into his sentence, in December 2023, Garry Artman died of natural causes while incarcerated.
