As part of a plea deal, an estranged Florida husband had admitted to the bloody killing of his wife and led police to her remains nine months after the crime.
David Anthony pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and kidnapping in exchange for a 38-year sentence after he spent the days following the Mach 21 murder throwing off his wife’s worried relatives and friends.
Prosecutors said that Anthony sent texts to at least five people from his murdered wife Gretchen’s phone claiming she had “acute Covid” and was at Jupiter Medical Center.
The husband even abandoned Gretchen’s car at the hospital parking lot but surveillance footage showed he was the driver who parked it there.
David and Gretchen, 51, had filed for divorce in late February before he showed up at her home, murdered her, and disposed of her body in the garage.
Neighbors described hearing “blood-curdling screams” on the day of Gretchen’s murder and smelled heavy chemical odors emanating from the home.
Cadaver dogs tracked down the decomposition smell that remained all over the place and detectives found traces of blood and bleach in the garage and house.
“Towels that had a reddish substance on them that appeared to be blood” were also recovered.
The car parked at the hospital days later by David also had blood on the steering wheel and gearshift. Given all the evidence against him, the 43-year-old was arrested on March 31 in New Mexico and charged with murder even without the victim’s body.
Prosecutors considered the plea deal a success even if it prevents David from facing capital punishment: “We were able to find her body, which we didn’t have that information before.”
