Man gets 25 years in body-in-suitcase homicide

NEW CASTLE, Ind. – Joshua Sidwell was frank Wednesday in addressing the man who caused the death of Sidwell’s daughter two years ago.

“To me, you should be shot or hanged, just like they did back in the day,” Sidwell told Anthony Emerson Dailey, who pleaded guilty in March to voluntary manslaughter in the April 2015 death of 22-year-old Kirsten Sidwell.

At the hearing’s conclusion, Dailey, now 39, was sentenced to 25 years in prison by Henry Circuit Court 2 Judge Kit Crane, who accepted the terms of a plea agreement.

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The defendant maintained the strangulation death occurred accidentally during a sexual encounter.

A fisherman found the victim’s remains, partially enclosed in a suitcase, in a northern Henry County pond.

Joshua Sidwell told Dailey his pain over the loss of his daughter “is forever, every single day.”

Rebecca Sidwell, the victim’s grandmother, told Dailey she believed Kirsten had trusted him because he had years earlier been acquainted with her late mother.

Sidwell said her “loving, loyal” granddaughter had “longed for any connection to her mother.”

“She loved her dog,” the grandmother said. “She loved her dad. She loved her family.”

Dailey made a brief statement to his victim’s survivors.

“I just want to tell you guys I’m sorry for your loss,” he said. “Nothing was intentional.”

Judge Crane told members of Sidwell’s family that the justice system was not perfect, but “it’s what we have.”

Dailey received credit for 745 days of pre-sentence incarceration. Sheriff Ric McCorkle arranged for him to spend most of that time in the Wayne County jail, to prevent conflicts with any local inmates who knew Sidwell or her family.

The plea agreement called for dismissal of a murder charge, with a standard 55-year sentence.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. Follow him on Twitter: @DouglasWalkerSP.