1996 murder suspect stands trial on 3 counts

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – A truck driver is on trial for the 1996 murder of a woman in the Grand Rapids Metro.

Garry Artman, 64, was bound in Kent County Circuit Court on Friday for first-degree criminal sex conduct, felony murder and outright murder.

He is accused of raping and murdering 29-year-old Sharon Hammock. Her body was found on October 3, 1996 near Grand Rapids. She left behind two children and was pregnant with a third, her family said.

Artman was then living in the Grand Rapids area. Now he is a truck driver living in Florida. He was identified as a suspect through genealogy, with researchers comparing DNA left at the scene of Hammack’s murder with samples in public ancestry databases. This led them to Artman’s parents, and further investigation pointed to Artman as a likely suspect. He was arrested in Mississippi last month and brought back to Kent County to face charges.

In Maryland, he also faces first- and second-degree murder and second-degree assault in the 2006 death of Dusty Shuck.

Shuck, 24, of New Mexico, was found dead on the shoulder of eastbound I-70 on May 4, 2006 near Mt. Airy, Maryland, 40 miles northwest of Washington, DC. She wasn’t wearing shoes and her ID was gone.