A Missouri man killed his wife with a hammer and kept her body hidden in a freezer at a storage facility for four years, police in Marshfield said on Wednesday.
Larry Dinwiddie, 57, has been charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action, and abandonment of a corpse, the Springfield New-Leader reported.
Webster County deputies found Cynthia Dinwiddie’s body in the freezer at a storage facility after employees there cut the lock off and opened it when Dinwiddie fell behind in the rent, KOAM reported.
According to court documents, deputies had the management of the storage facility, where the freezer had been for more than six months, call Dinwiddie and tell him that his freezer had stopped working and was starting to smell. When he arrive with friends to move it, he was arrested.
The probable cause affidavit said that Dinwiddie told detectives his wife was “an abusive alcoholic” and that she threw a hammer at him during an argument in 2015. He picked up the hammer, he said, and hit her in the head with “everything” he had. According to the affidavit, Dinwiddie said he didn’t know what to do with the body, so he put it in the freezer and had friends help him take it to a storage facility. The friends had no idea what was inside, he told detective, KOAM said.
Webster County Sheriff Roye Cole said an autopsy would be performed next week when the body defrosted. Dinwiddie is being held on $1 million bond.
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[Featured image: Larry Dinwiddie/Webster County Sheriff’s Office]
