A New Jersey wife was convicted Tuesday for stabbing her husband to death in 2007 and lugging his dismembered remains while she moved at least twice, the Press of Atlantic City reported.
The remains of Loretta Doyle Burroughs' husband were found at her Ventnor home in 2013 inside Tupperware containers meticulously covered in trash bags and air fresheners to mask the smell. Atlantic County prosecutors said the 63-year-old tried hiding her heinous crime by telling people her husband Daniel left her and ran away to Florida.
But after a six-year missing persons investigation and the discovery of Daniel Burroughs' remains in a closet, it took the jury just two hours to convict the wife for murder and hindering her own apprehension.
"She thought she got away with it," Assistant Prosecutor Seth Levy said according to the Press of Atlantic City. "The only thing that could stop her now was Danny himself."
Investigators say 66-year-old Daniel Burroughs was killed sometime in early August 2007, when the couple lived in Hamilton Township, New Jersey. He was reported missing a month later, according to the South Jersey Times.
In the meantime, his wife moved to a new home in Ventnor, where she spun a tale of being abandoned by her spouse. But Daniel's missing persons case was resumed and investigators searched the home in May 2013 in search of paperwork linking Loretta Burroughs to his disappearance, the Press of Atlantic City reported.
Instead they found Daniel's remains inside two Tupperware containers. Both containers were wrapped in nine trash bags filled with air fresheners, scented beads and dryer sheets. At the time Loretta was in the process of moving to another home in Lower Township.
"The end of it all is Daniel Burroughs, decomposed in two Tupperware containers in this defendant's closet," Levy said. "This is how it ends."
As to what exactly killed Daniel, a medical examiner testified he could not be sure because there were no organs left among the remains, which were covered in saw and stab cuts. Toxicology tests showed amphetamines were in the victim's system at the time of death.
Anthony Previti, the defendant's attorney, said this was an indication of Loretta's innocence. Her husband could have been smoking meth, Previti said.
But the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.
Loretta faces life in prison upon sentencing April 22.
