Wife charged with murder searched for 'how to kill someone and not get caught,' police say

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

A Maypearl, Texas, woman has been charged with murder after she was arrested Wednesday night on suspicion of killing her husband.

Sandra Louise Garner was arrested Jan. 10, nine days after her husband's death. Police said they were led to the 55-year-old after they seized one of her electronic devices and discovered that she'd recently searched "how to kill someone and not get caught," according to the Waxahachie Daily Light. Garner's late husband, 42-year-old John Garner, was found in the couple's home early Jan. 2. Maypearl Police Chief Boyd Norton said the autopsy revealed that John Garner was killed with a .38 caliber bullet.

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Norton said Sandra Garner called 911 on the night of her husband's death, saying, "Ms. Garner told investigators she was awakened by two gunshots and saw a masked male holding a gun and a flashlight inside her residence," per a report from Paris Extra. Sandra Garner also claimed that "the perpetrator told her he held a grudge against her husband because of work-related matters," police said. She also reportedly told police that the gunman told her he wasn't there to hurt her and that he made her open the family safe and fork over $18,000. However, as early as Jan. 4, the Maypearl Police Department pushed back on Sandra Garner's story, writing on Facebook, "We have reason to believe that the shooting was NOT a 'stranger on stranger' home invasion."

The Ellis County Sheriff's Office reportedly got a search warrant and found a bullet in a pillowcase in the Garners' bedroom. That discovery led to them seizing the devices, where they uncovered Sandra Garner's search history. Norton also said investigators found a .38 Taurus handgun in a Ford Mustang parked near the residence. The gun was wrapped in a paper towel and slipped into two plastic bags, he said. Police arrested Sandra Garner after experts determined that the bullet found in the John Garner's body matched the .38 found in the Mustang.

Sandra Garner is now facing a murder charge and is in the Ellis County Jail on a $2 million bond.

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