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Michael Marion Sharpe, age 71, a former Hartford charter school CEO, was sentenced on Monday, Jan. 2 to 72 years in prison for felony charges related to the kidnappings and sexual assaults of four women in Connecticut dating back to 1984, said Chief State’s Attorney Patrick Griffin.
Sharpe’s conviction was the result of an extensive investigation by the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney’s Cold Case Unit that included the use of forensic genetic genealogy.
According to trial testimony, Sharpe kidnapped four women and sexually assaulted them in separate incidents in June and July 1984 in Bloomfield, Middletown, Windsor, and Rocky Hill.
In addition to sexually assaulting the victims, testimony showed Sharpe brandished a firearm while breaking into and robbing the homes during the commission of the four kidnappings.
After years of not being able to match DNA found at the crime scene with samples in DNA databases, investigators were able to develop Sharpe as a suspect in these crimes using publicly available genealogy information.
In November 2020, investigators retrieved Sharpe’s DNA from items found in trash left on the curb at Sharpe’s Marlborough home. The DNA found on those items matched the suspect in the four 1984 sexual assaults.
A search and seizure warrant was issued to obtain confirmatory saliva secretions and buccal cell samples from Sharpe. Those samples matched the suspect in the four 1984 sexual assaults.
“For more than three decades, four women wondered whether the man who committed unimaginable crimes against them would ever be brought to justice so it's satisfying to see the system work, even after all these years,” said Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney John F. Fahey, head of the Cold Case Unit.
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