Post by Graveyardbride on May 16, 2020 14:40:03 GMT -5
Florida Man Kills Wife, Blames Coronavirus for Disappearance
Just before sunrise on Saturday, March 21, a bloodcurdling scream awakened a resident in the tranquil planned community of Abacoa, a development within the city limits of Jupiter, Florida. This was followed by the cries of a woman pleading, “No! No! It hurts!” The disturbance was coming from the Key West-style townhome of Gretchen Anthony, a 51-year-old woman estranged from her husband. The neighbor also saw a black truck in the driveway with the engine running and noticed a tarpaulin spread out in the bed of the vehicle.
A few days later, five of Gretchen Anthony’s friends and relatives began receiving text messages indicating she had contracted an “acute case” of the coronavirus. In one message, she said she was being “quarantined” for a period of two weeks and told someone else she had been diagnosed at the Jupiter Medical Center, but was being held by the CDC.
Finally, on March 26, five days after the neighbor heard the disturbing scream, family members asked police to conduct a welfare check at Mrs. Anthony’s home. Relatives advised authorities Gretchen and her husband, David Ethan Anthony, 44, were separated.
It was noted Mr. Anthony had listed the address as his own in a March 15 incident wherein he had used black electrical tape to change his license plate number, approached underage girls at nearby Riviera Beach and resisted arrest with violence by slamming the car door on an officer’s arm. Anthony ultimately blamed his 12-year-old daughter for altering the license plate
When they arrived at the property, a neighbor asked officers if they were investigating “the attack that occurred Saturday morning.” The same neighbor showed them a photo she had taken of David Anthony washing his wife’s blue Mini Cooper in the driveway on Sunday, March 22. And this wasn’t all, her husband had seen a stream of water “mixed with an unknown chemical” coming from the garage on Monday, March 23, and it was his impression someone was giving the garage floor a thorough scrub.
Family members told investigators Mr. and Mrs. Anthony, who had married in 2015, lived separate lives and had filed for divorce on February 28. Additionally, they insisted David Anthony had “issues, that Gretchen was afraid of him and they feared he had done something to his wife.
Police soon discovered Jupiter Medical Center, the facility that had allegedly diagnosed Gretchen’s COVID-19, had no record of her in the system, however, her blue Mini Cooper was located in the hospital’s parking lot.
Once the investigation was underway and word spread that “something” had happened at Gretchen Anthony’s home, a second neighbor told detectives he also heard screams on the morning of March 21st and saw David Anthony’s black Nissan Frontier parked outside the house that weekend. The truck bed, he claimed, appeared to be loaded with something covered by a tarp.
Then a third neighbor came forward with footage from a security camera showing a truck matching that belonging to David Anthony coming and going from his estranged wife’s home.
While searching the residence, investigators found two containers of household cleaner and a rag on a kitchen counter top, towels on which there was a reddish substance that appeared to be blood in the washing machine, a broken glass frame on the stair landing, small pieces of glass on a comforter in the master bedroom, and what appeared to be blood droplets on the master bedroom wall.
While all this was transpiring in Jupiter, David Anthony was making his way across the country, possibly on his way to Costa Rica. On Wednesday, March 25, Gretchen Anthony’s cellphone pinged off a tower near Pensacola and around 1:30 p.m. that day, David attempted to sell a bagful of lady’s jewelry at a store in Pensacola.
On Thursday, March 30, police in Jupiter received a call from Anthony, who advised them Gretchen was being treated for coronavirus. Then he got really creative and alleged his wife had discovered her employer was committing tax fraud, had contacted the IRS and she was “terrified for her life and someone was sent to her house to hurt her the other weekend.”
The following day, David Anthony was arrested in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and by May 7, he was back in Florida facing charges of second-degree murder and kidnaping. He is being held without bail in the Palm Beach County Jail.
Now, authorities have released video footage from around 6 a.m. on March 21st showing a very tall man (Anthony is 6'7") on the screened porch, lying in wait for Gretchen to come home. Ten minutes later, Mrs. Anthony is seen walking onto the porch, after which there are the sounds of muffled cries. According to the report, hours later, someone with a “blood-soaked head” with “light-colored hair” is observed lying on the floor of the garage.
David Anthony is the last person known to have had contact with his wife. “As the investigation has progressed and further evidence collected, it is believed David Anthony is responsible for her disappearance and related homicide,” police indicated in a statement.
To date, Gretchen Anthony’s body has not been located.
Sources: KNEWZ, May 16, 2020; Michelle Quesada and Matt Papaycik, WPTV, May 14, 2020; WFLX, May 14, 2020; Christina Carrega, ABC News, April 14, 2020; Hannah Winston, The Palm Beach Post, April 9, 2020; Al Pefley and Sabrina Lolo, WPEC, April 9, 2020; WDBO; and State of Florida v. David Ethan Anthony.
