Woman indicted for murder accused of stabbing Riverside man with pair of scissors

Credit: Montgomery County Jail

Credit: Montgomery County Jail

A Dayton woman was indicted Thursday in the June deadly stabbing of a Riverside man whose body was found by a family member.

Sarah M. Bierma, 38, is scheduled to appear Tuesday in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court for two counts of murder, two counts of felonious assault and one count each of aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery and tampering with evidence.

Bierma is accused of killing 60-year-old Kendall Combs, who appeared to have been stabbed to death with a pair of scissors, according to a release from the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office.

Combs’ niece found her uncle dead on June 21 in the kitchen of his home in the 300 block of Wendell Lane after she became concerned about not being able to contact him.

“I just went to go check on my uncle and he’s dead,” she told a dispatcher. “He’s beyond help. There’s blood everyone.”

Riverside police Maj. Matthew Sturgeon said Combs had been stabbed and that he had been dead for at least 24 hours. A police report indicated the incident happened around 7 p.m. June 17.

Investigators were led to Bierma after tracing Combs’ missing cellphone. Police pinged the phone’s location and found Bierma with it, Sturgeon said.

Sturgeon said it didn’t appear Combs and Bierma had “any consistent connection.” Combs reportedly picked up Bierma on Xenia Avenue the Saturday before his death.

Bierma remains in the Montgomery County Jail, where she has been held since her June 21 arrest.

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