78 Year Old Florida Man Kills His Wife, Chops Her Up And Stuffs Her Into A Suitcase

A 78-year-old Florida man has been arrested for allegedly murdering his wife of 15 years, whose dismembered remains were found stuffed into suitcases and bags found floating in a local waterway.

William Lowe Jr. was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder and abuse of a body in the death of his 80-year-old wife Aydil Barbosa Fontes, Delray Beach police announced in a news conference Thursday.

Police first found a suitcase with human remains inside on July 21 in the Intracoastal Waterway near Palm Trail in Delray Beach, about 30 miles north of Fort Lauderdale. Shortly after two other suitcases were found, also with human remains, nearby along the intracoastal.

The following day a multi-agency search led to the discovery of two additional bags in the waterway within the Delray Beach city limits, Det. Mike Liberta said.

Last month, police pleaded for the public's help in identifying the then-mystery victim. At the time the victim was described to be a woman between 35 and 55 years old, and Hispanic or white.

Detective Liberta said officials believe Lowe shot Barbosa — whose cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head — then dismembered her body inside his apartment and put her remains into the bags which he discarded into the intracoastal.

However, it’s not clear what motivated the murder.