Zelida Wood was found guilty of malice murder and other charges in the death of her fiancé by a grand jury. A woman has been found guilty of killing her fiancé and concealing his death – and living with his corpse for two months. Tabitha Zelida Wood, 46, concealed the death of her 82-year-old fiancé Leroy Franklin Kramer Jr, show court records obtained by WSB-TV. A Hall County grand jury on Friday found her guilty of killing him. Sheriff’s deputies arrived at Kramer’s home in Georgia in June 2022 and found his corpse. Wood then told them that he had died during the first week of April of that year and that she had been living with his dead body in the residence ever since. An autopsy revealed that Kramer was murdered. According to the sheriff's office, the preliminary cause of death appeared to be blunt and sharp force trauma. Deputies only discovered Kramer's body after his stepdaughter contacted them, expressing concern for his safety because she hadn't heard from him in months. Wood was found guilty of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault, concealing someone's death, elder exploitation, and financial transaction card theft. Her sentence has not yet been made public. Wood was convicted after another woman, Jennifer Maedge, unknowingly lived with her husband's body missing for eight months. Jennifer reported her husband Richard missing last April. Police searched their home in Troy, Illinois, but were unable to locate him. They smelled a'sewer-like' odor, which a plumber identified as sewer gas. Then, in December, while looking for Christmas decorations, Jennifer went into a hidden closet and discovered her husband's mummified body. 'I decided to put up the Christmas tree, and I was looking for a tote of Christmas ornaments when I discovered him,' Jennifer explained at the time. 'He had killed himself.' The couple's home resembled a "hoarder home," making it difficult for cops to locate the missing man's body at first.
By Covenantblog
