What happened to Sarah Washington? ID's Murder in the Heartland explores the murder of Illinois model

Sarah Washington, a 25-year-old aspiring model from Kankakee, Illinois, was brutally shot dead in her apartment in June 2014. The highly intriguing true-crime documentary show, Murder In The Heartland of Investigation Discovery, is all set to unfold the heart-wrenching story of Sarah's death and how her murderer was finally convicted.

Murder In The Heartland is currently in its fourth season. Whispered Warnings, the seventh episode, will chronicle the story of Sarah Washington's murder. It will air on May 2, 2022, on Investigation Discovery. The episode will be 60-minutes long and the synopsis given for this episode reads:

"The community of Kankakee, Illinois, comes together to aid police in uncovering the vile killer in the shooting death of an up-and-coming model, Sarah Washington."

Without further ado, let's dive in and find out what happened to Sarah Washington before Murder In The Heartland Season 4 Episode 7 debuts.

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Murder in the Heartland is all set to explore the murder of

Sarah Washington

Learn all about the unfortunate death of Illinois model Sarah Washington

Representative Image (Image Via Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

Residing in Kankakee, Illinois, 25-year-old Sarah Washington was the oldest daughter of DeAngelo and Kathy Washington. Sarah was an upcoming model who took part in an array of local fashion events for charity. She also had a professional modeling deal under her belt.

Apart from modeling, Sarah was also a hard-working employee of a medical center and was getting ready to start working at a veterans' home. The promising young woman was also planning on attending nursing school.

Unfortunately, her bright future was cut short when she became the victim of a ghastly incident that took place in her apartment.

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Who is the murderer of Sarah Washington?

Representative Image (Image Via Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

On June 26, 2014, Sarah's mother Kathy went to pick up Sarah and drive her to work. But upon entering her apartment, to her utter shock, she found Sarah dead with two bullet wounds to her head, leaning up against the wall of her bedroom.

When the police arrived at the crime scene, they found .380-caliber shell casings. There was no forced entry, and one of the pillows had blood and bullet holes.

First, Greg Dismuke, who was Sarah's boyfriend at the time, was held as the prime suspect by the authorities as he was allegedly cheating on her. But due to a lack of evidence against him, he was dropped from the suspect list. However, Greg revealed arguably the most important piece of information that his friend, Rex Frank, came to visit him that exact morning.

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Greg further disclosed that he received a call from Rex, informing him about the crime scene at Sarah's apartment. When the authorities questioned Rex, he was initially quite cooperative. However, authorities discovered that Rex made a similar phone call to another person.

(Image Via Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

Just a few days after this dreadful incident, another fatal shooting took place in the area. Rian Maiden, a 36-year-old man, was also shot twice in the head. Reportedly, during questioning, Rex confessed to killing Rian.

Later on, authorities connected Rex with Sarah Washington's murder as the shell casings discovered at Rian’s murder scene matched the bullets shot from the gun used to kill Sarah.

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Rex Frank received a life sentence in March 2019 and according to records, he is currently imprisoned at the Menard Correctional Center in Randolph County, Illinois.

Watch Investigation Discovery's Murder In The Heartland Season 4 Episode 7, arriving this May 2, 2022.