NewsChannel 5.com - Nashville, Tennessee - Police Arrest Murfreesboro Man For Wife's Death

Police Arrest Murfreesboro Man For Wife's Death

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - When William Jones first reported his wife, LaShawn Jones, missing on Oct. 5 he told police that she had gone missing before. Two weeks later, police arrested William on charges of first degree murder and abuse of a corpse.

William told police he last saw LaShawn at 11 p.m. on Oct. 4 in their Gateland Drive home in Murfreesboro. Then when William woke up for work on Oct. 5 at 3 a.m., he said his wife was gone. William told police his wife's cell phone and all of her belongings were still inside their home.

During the two week investigation, an interview police conducted with LaShawn's husband led detectives to believe William murdered his wife and disposed of her body.

Sunday afternoon police found the body of a woman off Old Nashville Highway after a farmer saw something in his field.

"My first pass, I didn't make it maybe 300 feet before I smelled and saw something suspicious in the fencerow," said the farmer.

The farmer who would rather not be named, didn't know it then, but he'd stumbled upon the body of LaShawn Jones,

"It was essentially a human - face down there, wasn't a lot left of the torso and I tried to convince myself it was not a human until I saw the feet," said the farmer. "It'll be something I'll remember forever absolutely."

William is in jail Tuesday. Police said he confessed to the murder during questioning Monday night.

"From missing to murder - it's crazy, didn't think it would happen over here," said neighbor Landon Davis.

Neighbors would often see William playing along the street with his three children and most said they never met his wife.

"I talked to him the day of his wife missing. It was odd he didn't really have emotions. I thought that was kind of weird," said Davis.

Neighbors said William was in Michigan before his arrest Monday, and that the three children might still be there with family.

Police are still waiting on autopsy results to figure out how LaShawn was killed. William is charged with murder and abuse of a corpse for dumping the body.