Skyler Rocz had been a detective for all of six weeks when she got a “once-in-a-lifetime case,” she said.
A deputy’s phone call that January day three years ago prompted Rocz to investigate Sarah Hartsfield, a former U.S. army sergeant whose husband - her fifth – had been admitted to a Texas hospital in a diabetic coma that hospital staffers found suspicious.
That examination quickly became far more sprawling and complex as Rocz discovered a web of allegations from Hartsfield’s past, including an alleged murder plot involving her third and fourth husbands – an accusation she denies – and the fatal shooting of a onetime fiancé that Hartsfield has described as self-defense.
hartsfield, 50, has not been charged with any crimes related to those cases. But Rocz’s investigation led to a murder conviction for Hartsfield last year in the January 2023 death of Joseph Hartsfield, 46.For more on the case, tune in to “The Trouble with Sarah” on “Dateline” at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT tonight.
Now an investigator with the Chambers County District Attorney’s Office, Rocz worked for the Phoenix Police Department before landing a job in 2020 as a deputy with the Chambers County Sheriff’s Office.
Joseph Hartsfield had been admitted to the hospital in an unresponsive state.He was diabetic, and his blood sugar had crashed, Rocz recalled, but he wasn’t responding to treatment.
Hospital staff weren’t sure why, she said, though they thought there may have been too much insulin in his system. The lifesaving medication helps people with diabetes regulate their blood sugar but has also been used as a difficult-to-detect murder weapon.
A detective investigating the shooting of Joseph Hartsfield uncovered a series of troubling messages on the victim’s phone, leading investigators to suspect his wife, Sarah Hartsfield, was involved. The messages, sent the morning of January 7th, hours before Joseph hartsfield was hospitalized, were between his phone and Sarah Hartsfield’s.
The case initially involved scrutiny of Sarah Hartsfield’s past, including a restraining order connected to an alleged murder-for-hire plot. During her trial, her third husband testified that the fourth husband claimed Sarah Hartsfield wanted him dead to distract him from their children. An FBI agent corroborated the story, but federal prosecutors declined to pursue charges after the fourth husband said sarah Hartsfield wasn’t involved. She has denied the allegations and hasn’t been charged in connection with the plot.
What the cellphone showed
Detective Rocz began investigating these and other accusations. However, it was the examination of Joseph Hartsfield’s cellphone that prompted her supervisors to believe something was amiss. The messages found on the phone were sent to Sarah Hartsfield hours before Joseph Hartsfield was taken to the hospital.
Included in the messages was his driver’s license information.
