Man arrested in murder of wife whose body was stuffed in suitcases in Florida

Police have arrested the husband of a murdered woman whose body was apparently dismembered with a chainsaw and stuffed into multiple suitcases and bags that were found floating in different areas of the Intracoastal Waterway in Delray Beach.

William Lowe, 78, was arrested Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder and abusing a dead body in the killing of his 80-year-old wife, Aydil Barbosa Fontes, records showed.

Delray Beach Police officials were expected to announce the arrest at a news conference Thursday.

Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office

The remains were discovered on July 21 after police said they received a 911 call of a suspicious item in the water along the Intracoastal Waterway near the 1000 block of Palm Trail.

When officers arrived, they said they found a suitcase with human remains hanging out of it. According to an arrest report, the suitcase was weighed down with landscaping rocks and had an airport barcode sticker for LATAM Airlines with the name "Barbosa."

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A short time later, two other suitcases were found also containing human remains at nearby locations along the Intracoastal Waterway.

The arrest report said authorities also discovered a tote bag that had its handles tied shut with twine and was wrapped with a man's belt.

Inside the bag was a woman's head that had a gunshot wound, the report said.

A purse was also found in the water with the same type of twine and contained an ashtray that may have been used as a weight and had a "decomposition odor," the report said.

Investigators had been trying to identify the woman, and last week released a reconstructed image of what the woman may have looked like before she was killed.

Police also released pictures of two of the three suitcases that had contained her body.

Delray Beach Police

Investigators used dental records to identify the remains as Fontes, the report said.

Detectives believe the suitcases were placed in the water sometime between July 17 and July 20.

Residents who live along the waterway reported seeing a man who appeared to be looking at one of the floating suitcases on July 20, the report said.

One witness asked the man what he was looking at and he said he was "waiting for the big boat to come into the harbor," the report said.

The man "appeared nervous" and immediately walked over to his car, an older model gold sedan, entered it and left the area, the report said.

Another witness had seen a man enter the waterway using a dock ladder and said he appeared to be pushing something in the waterway, the report said.

Surveillance video from nearby showed a man climbing on the dock ladder twice on July 20, the report said.

Investigators later found blood on a dock ladder near where one of the suitcases was discovered, the report said.

Three roof workers said they had also seen a man on July 21 who was standing on the seawall looking at the suitcase and heard him say "s---" before getting into his car and leaving, the report said.

The witnesses had all described the man's car as a gold sedan or a Ford, and an detective was able to locate a gold Ford Taurus nearby.

When he ran the plates they came back to Lowe and the apartment he shares with Fontes, the report said.

Lowe was questioned by detectives on July 31 and said Fontes was in Brazil and said she had been there about three weeks, the report said. But he said he didn't know how she got to the airport, which airline she flew or the last time he spoke with her, the report said.

That same day, detectives executed a search warrant at the couple's apartment and found blood splatter throughout the living room, dining room, hallway, both bathrooms and the master bedroom, the report said.

Blood was also detected in the master bath shower drain and tub of the second bathroom, and detectives found drag marks and a large amount of blood in the living room, dining room and master bathroom, the report said.

Cleaning supplies containing blood splatter were also found, as well as a 9mm firearm, the report said.

A neighbor told detectives she'd recently been hearing Lowe's door open and close in the middle of the night, the report said.

Another neighbor remembered seeing what she thought was a trail of soup leading from Lowe's door through the hallway and up to a unit that she said was owned by Lowe's sister, the report said.

The neighbor said she hadn't seen the sister in over two years, possibly three, but would see Lowe enter it on occasion, the report said.

When detectives searched that apartment, they found a black cover for a Ryobi chainsaw and a charger which would be used to charge a battery on a chainsaw, as well as multiple bottles of cleaning supplies, the report said.

According to the report, the case became even stranger when, as officers executed one of the search warrants, Lowe climbed in through a back window, telling police he needed to get his phone and the key to a storage unit.

That led detectives on Wednesday to execute a search warrant at Lowe's storage unit where they found a Ryobi chainsaw that appeared to have blood on the blade, chain and housing, as well as bone matter, flesh and human hair in the housing of the saw, the report said.

Investigators also found a small Coleman cooler that had red marks and stains, the report said.

At a news conference Thursday, Delray Beach Police Chief Russ Mager said investigators worked around the clock to solve the "heinous crime."

Lead Det. Mike Liberta said police don't know the motive for the killing, since Lowe hired a lawyer and stopped talking. He was also asked to compare the crime to others he's handled.

"I'd say this is probably the worst I've seen," Liberta said.

Lowe was being held without bond Thursday, jail records showed. Attorney information wasn't available.