A Florida man has been arrested and charged with his wife's murder after police found dismembered remains stuffed in suitcases off Florida's southeast coast last month.
William Lowe Jr., 78, was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder and abuse of a body in the death of 80-year-old Aydil Barbosa Fontes, the Delray Beach Police Department said during a news conference Thursday, the same day Lowe appeared in court for the first time and was ordered to be held on no bond.
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Aydil Barbosa Fontes' body was apparently dismembered with a chainsaw and stuffed into multiple suitcases and bags. Her husband was arrested in connection with her murder. https://t.co/HGqcLZVOyr
— NBC 6 South Florida (@nbc6) August 4, 2023
Delray Beach police announced in late July that they got a call from a construction worker claiming he or she saw something strange in the Intracoastal Waterway. Legs, confirmed to be that of a woman, along with small rocks, were hanging outside of one of the suitcases. About an hour later, officers got a call that another suitcase had been found, this one containing a torso, and it also had small rocks inside, per local news station WPEC News.
Authorities reportedly searched the waterway the next day and found a tote bag with a belt wrapped around it, and inside there was a head with a gunshot wound.
In the initial press conference announcing the discovery of the body, police asked for the public's help in coming forward with any suspicious activity they noticed around the waterway, as well as any possible surveillance footage. According to the coastal Florida outlet, several witnesses told officers they saw a man who, for several days, was stopping by the water and observing one of the suitcases that police later recovered. When they asked what he was doing, he reportedly "appeared nervous and quickly left" in his car.
Delray Beach Police say this condo building is where William Lowe, Jr., 78, murdered and dismembered his wife before putting her remains in suitcases in the Intracoastal Waterway. @cbs12 pic.twitter.com/JeAPKUQk4p
— Al Pefley (@PefleyAlCBS12) August 3, 2023
Investigators found another possible clue inside one of the suitcases: an airline scan code that came back with the name “A Barbosa Ontes”, one letter away from the victim’s last name, “Fontes,” according to NBC News. Additional investigating alerted police to a vehicle tag, which helped them find a nearby address, one where Fontes lived.
Police searched the residence, where they reportedly found a bloody mess, including blood-soaked cleaning products, drag marks, and blood splatter. On Tuesday night, when investigators were inside, Lowe reportedly tried to enter through a back window and, once caught, claimed he just wanted to get his phone and keys to his storage unit.
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Inside the storage unit, police said they found a chainsaw. While a motive for the crimes is unclear, authorities said they believe Lowe shot Fontes in the head and then dismembered her body inside his apartment, putting her remains into the bags, which he then threw into the waterway.
Delray Beach has a population of about 66,000 people.