Missouri man smashed wife's head with hammer, strangled her and stored her body in freezer for 4 years
MARSHFIELD, MISSOURI: A Missouri man has been arrested and charged for the death of his wife, who he killed by hitting her with a hammer and then stored her body in a freezer in a storage facility for four years.
Larry Dinwiddie, a 57-year-old from Marshfield, had all but gotten away with murdering his wife Cynthia Dinwiddie in 2015 until managers at the McFadin Storage unit where he had kept the freezer with her body found it on November 25, according to KMOV.
They had opened his locker and the freezer, which was plugged in and padlocked, and had been at the facility for more than six months after Dinwiddie had fallen behind on his rental fees.
The Springfield News-Leader reported that, after making the gruesome discovery, Webster County Sheriff's officials tricked the 57-year-old into coming to the facility by having a worker tell him that the freezer had stopped working and was starting to smell.
When he arrived at around 2 pm on November 26 with friends, he was promptly arrested by deputies waiting for him and admitted the body found belonged to his wife. When questioned further, he said he killed her four years ago at their home by hitting her on the head with a hammer and strangling her.
An affidavit stated he claimed Cynthia was an "abusive alcoholic", and that the fatal encounter started after she threw a hammer at him during an argument. He said he couldn't take it anymore after that and hit her with "everything" he could.
"After killing her, he was scared and didn't know what to do with her body, so he dragged her to the freezer and put her in it," the affidavit said, adding that he said he kept her in it for the next four years because he "just didn't know what to do".
He also said he had his friends help him move the locked freezer from the house to McFadin without telling them what was inside. Webster County Sheriff Roye Cole said an autopsy will be conducted on Cynthia after the body defrosts.
Dinwiddie has been charged with second-degree murder, abandonment of a corpse, and armed criminal action in connection to the case. He is currently being held at the Webster County Jail on a $1 million bond, and if convicted, faces the prospect of life in prison.