FBI Seek Former Brother-In-Law of Alabama Elementary School Teacher Murdered In 2017

A North Carolina man has made the FBI's Most Wanted list after being charged with killing his former sister-in-law at his brother's request.

Darrin Christopher Starr, 53, is wanted by the FBI for his alleged part in the November 2017 murder of Sara Starr, 36, who was his former sister-in-law at the time of the murder. He was charged by federal authorities in December with the use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire.

His brother and Sara Starr's ex-husband at the time of her murder, Jason Starr, 48, was arrested at his Daleville, Alabama home — about 95 miles south of Montgomery — on Dec. 7 and faces the same federal charge, according to the Southeast Sun. Jason Starr was released from federal custody in early January with an ankle monitor, the paper reported.

Sara Starr, a mother of four, was a fourth grade teacher at Harrand Creek Elementary School in Enterprise, Alabama — just west of Daleville — when she was shot to death in her own driveway in Chancellor sometime after 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 27, 2017, the Sun reported at the time. Her body was found by two coworkers around 8:30 a.m. after she didn't arrive for work, according to Dothan, Alabama CBS affiliate WTVY

Her husband was apparently considered a person of interest in the case nearly immediately, but had an alibi: he was eating breakfast at a café at the time of her murder, the station reported. 

Jason Starr had filed for divorce from Sara Starr in 2015, according to WTVY, and Birmingham CBS affiliate WIAT reported that the divorce had only been finalized in July 2017. The Southesast Sun reported that, shortly before the murder, Jason Starr had been ordered to pay $2,500 a month in support to his then-ex-wife.

On May 23, 2018, Jason Starr was indicted by a grand jury for the sexual abuse of a child under age 12, Montgomery NBC affiliate WFSA reported. He was arrested outside of the Shell Army Air Field the following day and pleaded not guilty, the Enterprise Ledger reported. (Starr is an Army veteran with experience as a flight instructor, according to the Army Flier.) Starr pleaded not guilty and was released on bond.

In July 2018, his lawyer requested a change of venue in the case, the paper reported, due to local news publicity around his ex-wife's death — in which he had not been officially named as a suspect, though WIAT reported he had initially been detained for questioning — and the abuse charges. 

Alabama Twelfth Judicial Circuit District Attorney Tom Anderson said at the time of Starr's arrest in his wife's murder that they would continue to pursue the sexual abuse charges, the Southeast Sun reported, and did not rule out pursuing state charges in the murder case. Jason Starr was still out on bond in the abuse case at the time of his arrest for his wife's murder.

Federal and state authorities allege that Jason Starr gave his brother, Darrin, a 2016 Triumph motorcycle as payment for murdering Sara Starr in 2017, WTVY reported. Triumph motorcycles currently retail for between $8,000 and $25,000.

The FBI is offering $10,000 for information leading to Darrin Starr's arrest, and the Alabama governor's office is offering another $10,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction. He's said to have ties to both Lakehills and San Antonio, Texas, as well as Glendale, Arizona, and Colebrook, Connecticut.

According to the FBI, of the 526 people who have appeared on its Most Wanted List since its inception in 1950, 491 have been located and/or arrested.