Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the suspect accused of murdering former university professor Dr. Julee Gard Schnuelle — as they released gruesome new details about how she was ambushed and stabbed to death while walking her dog.
The announcement came Monday as Rashad Dabney III, 28, appeared in court, charged with two counts of capital murder — murder during a kidnapping and murder during a robbery.
Investigators believe Schnuelle, a 59-year-old retired veterinarian and professor at Alabama’s Auburn University, was ambushed by a stranger Saturday morning on a trail in Auburn’s Kiesel Park, where she walked her dog every day.
The mom was then dragged several hundred feet off the main path into a wooded area, where she was stabbed multiple times, WRBL reported, citing arrest warrants. Her dog was found unharmed near her body.
Evidence directly tied Dabney to the crime scene, according to the report, which did not elaborate.
The killer took Schnuelle’s keys and drove off in her red Ford F-150, which was later found abandoned in a creek bed less than five miles from Kiesel Park, the documents said.
Dabney was arrested a day later when someone called 911 about a suspicious-looking person about two miles from where the truck was abandoned.
The suspected murderer was previously arrested in December 2023 in Virginia on a weapons charge involving a sawed-off shotgun, WRBL reported. His only known other court appearance was in 2016 for a speeding ticket in Montgomery, the report said.
He was dressed in a black-and-white prison uniform as he appeared before a court in Lee County on Monday afternoon for an initial hearing, where he told District Judge Jeff Tickal he couldn’t afford an attorney.
Lee County District Attorney Jessica Ventiere confirmed she will seek the death penalty.
