Leanna Lehman
Robert Matthew Richards, accused of killing 25-year-old Sara Filiatraut in March 2024, was scheduled to appear in New River Township Justice Court before Judge Benjamin Trotter on Oct. 1. After conferring with his attorney, Charles Woodman, the matter was continued while the parties determine a date for a preliminary hearing.
Richards is charged with Open Murder. The case is now proceeding in Churchill County after Third Judicial District Court Judge Leon Aberasturi dismissed the case previously filed in Lyon County, finding the state had not established that the killing occurred there.
Filiatraut was reported missing by her father in Michigan on April 15, 2024. Investigators determined she had been in Fernley following her March 21 release from the Lyon County jail and that she met Richards the following day. Surveillance video showed a woman resembling Filiatraut getting into a truck resembling Richards’ near a Fernley McDonald’s on March 22.
Location data showed Richards’ truck later traveled to a casino and returned to his residence, where it remained until the following morning. On March 23, the truck traveled into a remote area in Churchill County.
Investigators with the Lyon and Churchill County sheriff’s offices searched that area on May 23, 2024, and found Filiatraut’s body in a desert pit about 30 miles east of Fallon. Investigators documented vehicle tracks and drag marks at the scene, and phone location records placed Richards within five meters of where the body was found.
The Churchill County complaint alleges Richards killed Filiatraut by strangulation, blunt force trauma, or both.
The jurisdictional dispute centered on where the killing occurred. Lyon County prosecutors argued circumstantial evidence established that Filiatraut was at Richards’ residence before his truck traveled to Churchill County, where her body was later found. The defense argued there was no forensic evidence establishing where or when Filiatraut died.
Aberasturi agreed that the state had not presented sufficient evidence establishing that an act of murder occurred in Lyon County. His Aug. 3 dismissal cleared the way for the case to proceed in Churchill County, where prosecutors had filed a new Open Murder complaint July 23.
Richards was arraigned in Fallon on Aug. 6. A subsequent status hearing was continued to Oct. 1. A preliminary hearing is set for March 10, 2027; however, the case is expected to be bound over to the Tenth Judicial District Court beforehand. In Nevada, felonies cannot be sentenced in Justice Courts.
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