The former lovers of a Maryland woman have been sentenced to decades behind bars after they murdered her, dismembered her body, and dumped her remains in the Chesapeake Bay, the Baltimore Sun reports.
On Friday, a judge sentenced 45-year-old Christina Stallings Harnish and 47-year-old William Rice each to 40 years in prison in connection with the brutal slaying of Megan Tilman in 2017.
Authorities alleged that Harnish and Rice had been in a romantic relationship with the 42-year-old Tilman, a mother of two, and lived with her at a home in Annapolis.
Tilman reportedly financially supported Harnish and Rice, but when she could no longer do that, prosecutors alleged the two killed her. Investigators said Tilman was intellectually disabled and that Harnish and Rice took advantage of her.
Cousins of Tilman reported her missing on November 1, 2017, days after body parts began washing ashore in Shady Side, Maryland. At the time, authorities did not know those body parts belonged to Tilman, but the remains were linked to her 18 months later.
Prosecutors described the woman’s death as “the worst second-degree murder imaginable,” according to the Sun.
Defense lawyers for Harnish and Rice claimed that their clients had gotten into a fight with Tilman while they were drunk and high on crack cocaine and eventually killed her in the struggle, according to The Associated Press.
Police arrested the pair four years later after they were found in a homeless encampment in Arizona, FOX5 reports.
“If you ever want to know horror, imagine body pieces of a loved one washing ashore,” Tilman’s aunt, Shannon Perry, told the court in a victim impact statement, according to the Sun.
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[Feature Photo: Rice, Tilman and Harnish/Annapolis Police Department]
