S. Deschutes County woman wanted for attempted murder, child abuse captured with parents at coast hotel
(Update: specifics of Coos Bay arrests)
SUNRIVER, Ore. (KTVZ) – A south Deschutes County woman wanted on a $1 million nationwide felony arrest warrant on 19 charges, including attempted murder, in a disturbing child abuse case was arrested Friday morning at a Coos Bay hotel and second location, along with her parents, also wanted on charges in the case.
Sheriff Kent Van der Kamp told us initially that detectives had informed him that Sarah Marie Session (Hardenburg) was "indeed in custody" and that he was awaiting further details.
Sheriff’s Sergeant Jason Wall soon confirmed that Session and her parents, Gary and Paula Hardenburg, had been contacted and arrested without incident at a hotel in Coos County Friday morning.
Wall told KTVZ News that U.S. Marshals from the Portland Field Office, in conjunction with the DCSO’s U.S. Marshals Task Force, took the three suspects into custody and they were being transported back to the county Friday afternoon.
"The Deschutes County Sheriff's Office extends its thanks to all that assisted in locating these suspects and to those that affected the arrest," Wall said in a news release update.
The Coos Bay Police Department said it received information around 7 a.m. Friday regarding the family’s location at the Best Western Hotel on Bayshore Drive in Coos Bay.
Officers assisted by the U.S. Marshal’s Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force and Coos County sheriff’s deputies, responded to the hotel and an unidentified “second location in Coos Bay” and took all three family members into custody without incident on their Deschutes County warrants.
--
Earlier info:
Wall said detectives’ lengthy investigation led to the grand jury indictment filed Wednesday charging 19 felony counts against Sarah Marie Session, 33, also known as Sarah Marie Hardenburg, who the court documents show lives on Curlew Drive in the Oregon Water Wonderland Unit 2 subdivision south of Sunriver.
Listed as co-defendants are Gary Hardenburg, 65, who was indicted this week on three counts, first- and second-degree criminal mistreatment and tampering with physical evidence, and Paula Hardenburg, 60, facing six assault and criminal mistreatment counts. Court documents show they live in the same area, on Brant Drive.
“All suspects appear to be avoiding contact with law enforcement,” Wall said in a news release Thursday.
Session is accused of second-degree attempted murder, one count of first-degree assault, two counts of second-degree assault, five counts of third-degree assault, eight counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment and two counts of coercion.
The indictment alleges the crimes involved a child under the age of 10 and occurred between November 2023 and February 2024. They included forcing the child to “eat (their) own vomit” and injuries from hitting the child on the head and the leg and with a window stopper, as well as withholding “necessary and adequate food” from the child, violating Session’s legal duty to provide care.
In each count, the indictment says Session “had specialized education and training regarding the care and education of minor children and disregarded that education and training,” leading to a “degree of harm … significantly greater than is typical for such an offense.” As aggravating factors, Session is accused of deliberate cruelty and showing a lack of remorse.
On April 15 of last year, Session was charged with nine similar but lesser charges, including criminal mistreatment and assault, but the case was dismissed when the state said it was not ready to take the matter to the grand jury for an indictment. "Charges will be refiled at a future date," Deputy DA Stacy Neil said in the motion filed and granted last May.
