A husband and wife have been found guilty by a court for the murder of the man's ex-wife.
Grant Hayes
An American man and his wife have been convicted of murdering his ex-wife, who was also the mother of his two young sons.
The court heard how Grant and Amanda Hayes killed Laura Ackerson, cut her body into pieces and attempted to dissolve the remains in acid, while they threw her dismembered body parts into an alligator-infested creek in order to get rid of the evidence, Huffington Post reports.
Amanda divorced Grant after he was convicted and given a life jail.
Laura Ackerson was murdered in 2011, and a Texas jury, on August 21, 2018, convicted Amanda Hayes of tampering with evidence.
Ackerson was reported missing from Kinston, North Carolina, on July 18, 2011, after she had been gone about three days.
The then 27-year-old, an entrepreneur and graphic artist who had divorced Grant Hayes in 2010, was last known to be travelling to the Hayeses’ Raleigh apartment.
Ackerson and her ex-husband, Grant, then 32, had two- and three-year-old sons together, and authorities believe she was going to pick them up when she disappeared.
On July 20, Ackerson’s car was found parked at a northwest Raleigh apartment complex. The location, according to Police, was less than a quarter-mile from the Hayeses’ apartment.
Investigators learned that Grant Hayes, a budding area musician, had remarried actress Amanda Hayes, then 39 years old.
According to Inside Edition, Amanda’s screen credits include appearing in The Sopranos and portraying a robotic wife in the 2004 remake of The Stepford Wives.
Ackerson and her ex-husband reportedly had a tumultuous relationship and were involved in an ongoing custody dispute over their sons. The couple had been scheduled to appear in court on August 15.
Grant and Amanda Hayes, police discovered, had traveled to Richmond, Texas, on July 18. The city, about 60 miles south of Houston, was home to Amanda Hayes’ sister. Five days after the couple’s arrival, body parts were found scattered in Oyster Creek, roughly 100 yards from the sister’s house.
The head had been severed from the torso, which was found in two pieces, and the arms and legs had been cut from the body, Police said. Various body parts continued to surface for several weeks.
Amanda Hayes
Investigators identified the remains as those of Ackerson and arrested Grant and Amanda Hayes.
The sister did not face charges, according to Texas authorities, who said there was no indication she had any knowledge of what happened.
Given the condition of Ackerson’s body, the North Carolina chief medical examiner was unable to determine how she died and ruled her death a result of “undetermined homicidal violence.”
Investigators later said evidence collected in the case suggested Ackerson was killed and dismembered in North Carolina.
It’s believed her body parts were stuffed in ice chests and hauled about 1,200 miles to Texas for disposal.
Once in Richmond, the Hayeses, authorities said, attempted to use muriatic acid to destroy Ackerson’s body parts.
When that didn’t work, “they took a boat onto Oyster Creek and dumped Laura’s body parts into the water, with hopes that alligators would eat her remains,” the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office said.
Grant Hayes was arrested in Texas on suspicion of killing his ex-wife. One of the strongest pieces of evidence was a song Hayes recorded, in which he sang about killing his “babies’ mama.”
The lyrics read, in part:
My babies’mama, don’t talk to me.
Don’t want your drama. I got two kids by you.
I can’t take any more from you … I put a price tag on your head.
You must have told your attorney I got intentions on killing you.
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