Penny Pospisil: Florida woman gets life in prison for killing her BF and living with his dismembered body for 6 months
Warning: This article contains graphic description of crime that may trigger some readers. Discretion is advised.
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA: A Florida woman has been sentenced to life for brutally murdering her physically disabled boyfriend. She was caught by police after she lived with his dismembered remains for nearly six months in her camper. On Friday, February 24, 2023, Penny Rebecca Pospisil was handed the life sentence on all three counts by Judge Mary O Hatcher of Sumter County Circuit Court.
While at the Lake Pan RV Village, the 51-year-old woman murdered Anthony Mitchell, 55, in 2018 in Sumter County, according to authorities. With the body in the camper, Pospisil then drove two hours to her place of residence in Brevard County and lived with the body in the RV that contained her boyfriend's decomposing body, as per Law and Crime report.
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How did Penny Pospisil get caught?
Pospisil's arrest on December 30, 2019, was led by continuous complaints from her neighbors about the stench that came from the camper. When asked about her boyfriend's whereabouts, the woman, who is sentenced to life, told the inquirers that Mitchell was cremated after he had died of natural causes. After she was taken into custody, Pospisil told investigators that she was a victim of abuse and claimed that she killed him in self-defense. To all three charges against her, she finally pleaded guilty in October 2022.
Earlier this month, prosecutors who argued that the woman deserved the maximum sentence as they wrote in a sentencing memo that her slaying of Mitchell was "brutal and heinous" and before he was strangled to death, he suffered "violent blunt force trauma injuries from a weapon." His body tissues were "intentionally degraded" by Pospisil "to the point that he was unrecognizable," reported Law and Crime.
According to the details in the memo, "Notably absent from the crime scene were his heart and other internal organs. Anthony Mitchell’s genitals were severed from his decaying body as well." Calling it a "workman-like dismemberment," the prosecutors wrote, "This was a vicious and abhorrent killing that was further underscored by the defendant’s ongoing efforts to conceal the crime." Following the horrifying murder, Popsipil benefitted from Mitchell after she collected his social security benefits, accessed his bank accounts, and stole his credit cards.
What are the charges against Penny Pospisil?
For the 2018 murder of slaying Anthony Mitchell, 55, Pospisil faces one count of second-degree murder and life behind bars. For the abuse of a dead human body, Judge Hatcher has also ordered the murderer to serve 15 years consecutive to the life sentence, and also for grand theft of more than $300 but less than $20, 000, Pospisil has been ordered to serve five years.