‘Heinous psychopathic murder’: Details emerge about Sacramento-area woman’s dismemberment

Pamela Garrett May was worried about attempted break-ins at her North Highlands home. The elderly woman told neighbors she wanted to protect herself but wasn’t in favor of violence.

The 77-year-old woman was found dead on the morning of July 19 at her home in the 5200 block of Field Street. Her body was “dismembered beyond recognition,” Sacramento County sheriff’s officials said. It’s likely she had been killed days before her body was found.

“It’s sickening. When we saw the crime tape going up, I knew it was not good,” said Cindy Gomes, a childhood friend who lives a few houses down.

Darnell Erby, 44, of Sacramento, was arrested on July 19, the same day authorities found May’s body. Erby is accused of murder and burglary in connection with May’s death, charges that make the case eligible for the death penalty.

Erby remained in custody without bail at the Sacramento County Jail Thursday. Sheriff’s detectives believe there are no other suspects wanted in connection with May’s death.

Gomes said she didn’t hear any screaming from May’s home in the days before her body was discovered.

“It’s so scary,” Gomes told The Sacramento Bee on Thursday. “God, I guess I can’t leave my gates unlocked anymore.”

Lt. Rodney Grassmann, a sheriff’s spokesman, said there’s some indication May was killed days before her body was found. Sheriff’s officials were called out to the Field Street house on the morning of July 19.

“It was terrible, and I’m sure it was even more terrible for her family,” Grassmann said.

One neighbor said a stench was wafting from her home a few days before her body was found.

Eligible for the death penalty

Along with the murder and burglary charges, Erby faces a special circumstance allegation indicating he killed May while committing first-degree home burglary, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.

The special circumstance makes the case against Erby eligible for the death penalty, said Shelly Orio, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office. But she said prosecutors will not make that decision for several weeks.

Erby was convicted of home burglary in September 1997 in Sacramento County and in August 2017 in Placer County, according to the criminal complaint. The convictions are each considered a strike under California’s “Three Strikes” law.

Elderly woman lived alone

May lived alone in her house with boarded-up windows and a front yard littered with garbage. It could give someone the idea that her home had been abandoned or at least vacant. There’s a code enforcement violation sticker on the home’s front window.

Gomes said she grew up in the house next door with her family, and that May also grew up in her Field Street home with her parents. She said May moved away after she married her husband, Thomas May, but returned in the early 1980s to live at the home after her parents died.

About a year ago, May’s husband was moved to a care home because he suffered from extensive medical problems. Gomes said May has been living alone ever since.

“She was pretty darn healthy for a 77-year-old woman. I would always see her walking around, heading down the street to take the bus,” Gomes told The Sacramento Bee on Thursday. “A lot of our conversations were about needing help to clean up her home.”

Gomes’ grandson had been helping May try to clean up her front yard. May wouldn’t let him enter the home. Gomes said May was “a bit of a hoarder,” and she believes May became too overwhelmed with her home’s state of disrepair.

Gomes said she would occasionally see rats running across May’s roof, a sign the garbage was attracting rodents and bugs.

“I think she got to the point where she really couldn’t handle it anymore,” Gomes said.

Attempted burglaries

May had said she wanted to work as an activist to keep homeless shelters from opening near her neighborhood, claiming homeless people had tried to break into her home more than once, Gomes said.

Disturbances by homeless are common along Field Street, said neighbor John Oliveira. The 21-year-old man and his mother moved into the house next to May’s about a month ago. In that time, he said he found a homeless woman with apparent mental health problems sleeping on his front porch.

Oliveira described an unusual first meeting with May one night after midnight. He said he was taking items into his house after a long day of moving, and he encountered May doing stretching exercises in her driveway.

He said May told him she normally did her exercises early in the morning. She also said she lived there with her husband who had dementia.

“That was the one and only time I talked with her. I hardly ever saw her outside,” Oliveira told The Bee on Thursday. “The house was dilapidated; it looks totally abandoned. The property was encircled by a cyclone fence.”

In the short time they have lived there, Oliveira said he never had any problems with May.

“She seemed super nice,” Oliveira said. “She was polite.”

Was her home a target?

May’s home stands out, Oliveira said, as an “eyesore” among modest homes with green, trimmed lawns. He believes that might have made her home a target for someone looking to break in.

He assumed May had no electricity because he never saw lights on. Oliveira said he once saw her cooking on a fire pit in her back yard.

A couple of days before her body was discovered, Oliveira said he and his mother could already smell a foul odor coming from May’s home and thought it might be the accumulating garbage. They were about to report the stench to authorities when a sheriff’s deputy knocked to ask if they knew the woman who had been killed next door.

“I feel bad for her,” Oliveira said. “This was a heinous psychopathic murder.”