Mother of jogger who was raped, murdered by local farmer believes attack was 'premeditated'

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Crime Stories: Sydney Sutherland

The mother of an Arkansas jogger who was raped and killed by a local farmer believes the attack on her 25-year-old daughter Sydney was "premeditated." 

Maggie Sutherland spoke out in a new episode of Fox Nation's  "Crime Stories with Nancy Grace" after a judge found 28-year-old Quake Lewellyn mentally fit to stand trial in connection to the August killing

Lewellyn confessed to killing and raping the young nurse, allegedly telling medical experts that he "was driving to check the wells and the rice fields" when he spotted Sutherland walking along a gravel road. He turned his truck around after driving past her, but could no longer see her, which he attributed to dust from the gravel road.

Lewellyn said he thought he had hit Sutherland with his truck, and believed her to be dead before taking her body to a rice field where he dug a hole, took off her clothes "and tried messing with her a bit." His attorneys told him not to elaborate when investigators pressed him.

"You could tell it's kind of premeditated," a tearful Sutherland told Nancy Grace. "When someone turns around and goes back, it just, to this day, gives me chills to even think [of] what he did to my daughter because it was just a very cruel, evil thing. You know, he didn't just do one thing. He did everything, and it will never be out of my mind. It hurts deeply."

SYDNEY SUTHERLAND CASE: TIMELINE OF ARKANSAS JOGGER'S DISAPPEARANCE, MURDER

 Sutherland also rejected Lewellyn's claim that he was not competent to stand before a judge, arguing that she "knew all along that he ... was being advised to say that ... He knew what he was doing."

Lewellyn told officials that he "went back to work" immediately following the attack before going home, eating dinner and going to sleep, according to the report. He said he didn’t tell anyone and "just tried to forget about it."

To hear Sutherland's full account and for a closer look at the ongoing case, join Fox Nation and watch "Crime Series: Sydney Sutherland Update"  available today.

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