The woman who let Erica Sherwood take shelter in her home just days before her death thought she was pregnant.
Sharae Harris took a witness stand April 2 to describe the murder of Erica Sherwood, a 21-year-old woman she called a friend for 10 years. Sherwood was killed inside the Dale City home Harris lived at with her young son and mother. Sherwood died at the hands of her 22-year-old husband John on in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day, according to police.
Sherwood and her young son had been staying with Harris for about two days prior to New Year’s Day.
Harris told Prince William Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge H. Jan. Roslen-Anoll that John Sherwood came to her house New Year’s Eve uninvited and then later cut his bride’s throat in a bathroom inside the house.
In the days leading up to Sherwood’s death, Harris said she suspected she was pregnant.
“We thought about Christmastime that she was pregnant,” said Harris.
Sherwood was also seen vomiting, which prompted even more suspicion that she was pregnant, said Harris.
An autopsy report for Erica Sherwood is sealed in Prince William Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Clerk’s Office.
Prosecutors, however, say Sherwood was not pregnant when she was killed.
“There was no forensic evidence to indicate she was pregnant at the time of her death,” said Prince William County Commonwealth Attorney Paul Ebert.
A preliminary hearing for the murder case scheduled in February was rescheduled because a crime lab could not produce the autopsy report and other evidence in time for attorneys to review it.
Parties in this case are due back in court April 27 when a judge will decide the fate of Sherwood’s child.
The murder case against Sherwood is headed to a grand jury that meets on the first Monday in May. Afterward, court date will be scheduled.
