NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. (AP) - A man has been sentenced to life in prison three decades after his wife's body was recovered from the Gulf of Mexico.
A Pasco County judge sentenced William Hurst on Thursday after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder.
Authorities say 29-year-old Amy Rose Hurst disappeared from her New Port Richey home in September 1982. William Hurst was questioned, but police couldn't prove a crime without a body. The Tampa Bay Times reports that the body was found several months later off the coast of Anna Maria Island, but she wasn't identified until 2011, when her son submitted a DNA sample.
After that, detectives tracked Hurst to Kentucky and used secret recordings to build their case. Hurst told a friend that his wife's death was an accident, but he panicked and called some friends who were cocaine dealers to get rid of the body.
