Florida man accused of killing girlfriend throughout battle, burning physique

A Florida man is accused of fatally taking pictures his girlfriend throughout an argument and leaving her to die within the woods earlier than returning days later to burn her corpse and scatter her stays.

Police investigators in Indian Harbour Seashore witnessed Daniel Stearns, 32, making an attempt to bury the burnt-up stays of his girlfriend, 44-year-old Nancy Howerty.

“Whereas they had been surveilling him, they had been in a position to decide that he was burying the physique and he had truly burned the physique in an effort to destroy any doable proof,” Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said during a news conference.

Howery was reported lacking by her ex-husband and two kids on Feb. 18, three days after she failed to choose up her kids from college.

Her cellphone data confirmed that she was final seen on Feb. 15 at a gun membership in Palm Bay, Police Chief David Butler stated.

Howerty had reportedly been with a buddy, who advised investigators Howerty was supposed to satisfy up along with her boyfriend, Stearns, the identical day she went lacking.

Police found Howerty’s automotive deserted close to a web site referred to as “The Compound,” an space steadily misused for leisure actions.

Howerty’s boyfriend had made himself a suspect to police investigators early on within the case, Ivey stated.

The 2 occasions he was interviewed, Stearns confirmed “vital areas of deception, and actually recognized himself as a primary suspect within the case,” prompting authorities to put him underneath 24-hour surveillance.

Investigators adopted him to The Compound, the place they realized there have been truly 5 totally different crime scenes. Throughout their observations, investigations watched Stearn try and scatter Howerty’s charred stays throughout a number of areas.

Howerty’s stays had been burned and scattered in an effort to destroy proof, officers stated.

Stearns has been charged with second-degree homicide with a firearm, mutilation of a lifeless physique and tampering with proof in connection to the demise of Howerty.

He’s being held with out bond on the Brevard County Jail.