A white Texas man is below arrest for the brutal slaying of his Black fiancée after he allegedly stayed along with her physique for at the very least three days as a result of he “needed to put with” her.
William Joseph Oddo III, 52, was arrested on June 2 by the Denton County police on fees of homicide and tampering with proof after confessing to capturing LaVera Wardell within the head. He’s being held on $160,000 bail.
Investigators consider the suspect and his 39-year-old fiancée bought right into a combat on Might 6, however Wardell’s physique was not discovered till practically two weeks later, when neighbors referred to as 911 to report a “very foul odor” emanating from the condominium they shared, with flies buzzing across the entrance door.
“It’s actually heartbreaking. I don’t know the way it was proper above the workplace. It’s the penthouse above the workplace and proper subsequent to the gymnasium,” a neighbor from the Timberlinks Golf Membership advanced informed the Denton-File Chronicle. The sprawling condominium neighborhood is located subsequent to one among Texas’s top-ranked golf programs.
The physique stayed within the condominium till Might 19 when police made the grotesque discovery. They have been stunned to search out the partitions and ground have been unusually clear, with no blood splatter or blood proof anyplace within the condominium, reported the outlet. Police positioned a shotgun within the residence together with different unnamed objects that could possibly be used to masks smells, however Oddo had disappeared.
Quickly investigators turned up surveillance movies exhibiting Oddo in a number of shops buying cleansing provides on Might 13, a full week after Wardell’s homicide.
Oddo claimed he shot her within the head in self-defense after she ran towards him with a knife throughout an argument, in response to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by Fox 4. He allegedly left the condominium after every week as a result of horrible odor, leaving her physique behind, and holed up in a motel in Mount Nice, about two-and-half hours away, in response to the paperwork.
A choose initially granted an arrest warrant on Might 28 for tampering with proof. When police finally traced Oddo to the motel, they obtained search warrants to his motel room and automobile after he gave a damning interview on June 2, in response to arrest paperwork.
Police declare Oddo waived his Miranda rights and confessed to the killing, telling investigators that he scrubbed the homicide scene as a result of he “needed to put with” his deceased fiancée, and that he laid along with her physique “for about three days,” in response to the Denton File-Chronicle. He additionally confirmed that he used the shotgun discovered within the condominium to kill her, per the arrest affidavit.
Denton police say there have been purple flags earlier than the heinous slaying. There had been a historical past of home violence calls associated to the couple.
