A woman who told investigators that her ex-husband was away fishing with his new girlfriend has been charged with murder and tampering with evidence, after his body was found stashed underneath a pile of rugs in their carport.
The Otero County Sheriff’s Office said it had received multiple calls from the family of 60-year-old Craig Thetford, who said they had not heard from him since January.
Court documents, seen by
However, the documents stated, checks later proved Craig Thetford had not crossed the U.S.-Mexico border since 2023. His remains were later found at the couple’s home in Breckenridge, Texas, on June 17.
According to Texas Department of Public Safety Sergeant Juan L. Gutierrez, Thetford’s wife was located and arrested on July 8 and booked into the Wichita County Jail.
She faces charges of first-degree murder and tampering with evidence.
The court documents showed that when questioned by officers in May, Thetford showed the deputy two large gun safes at the home that she claimed had $1 million to $1.5 million in cash, but said she did not have the combinations and believed her husband had taken the money.
She later made a number of different excuses, including that her husband had broken his phone and gotten a new phone, that she did not know the number for.
Later, she claimed he had traveled to Texas to take care of his mother, though this was denied by Thetford’s sister.
The criminal complaint stated that around May 13, Thetford told her daughter that she and her husband had gotten into a fight and she had shot him multiple times.
She allegedly said that he had fallen down a set of stairs into the “pool room,” where she had left him for several days before dragging the body outside.
A search warrant was executed on June 17 at the Thetford’s property on Heather Way, where the body was located in the carport, wrapped in black plastic, blankets and rugs, and covered in a white powder substance and moth balls.
Per the complaint, his body was covered by piles of cardboard and other items.
An autopsy later confirmed that Thetford had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and that his manner of death was homicide. The coroner added it was likely he had been deceased for several weeks, if not months.
