Florida man gets 38 years in prison for kidnapping, killing wife

JUPITER, Fla. (WPTV) -- A Jupiter man who pleaded guilty to murdering his estranged wife last year was sentenced to more than three decades behind bars on Thursday, Jan. 14.

David Anthony, 44, will serve a 38-year prison sentence, with credit for 295 days of time already served, after confessing in December to killing Gretchen Anthony.

Authorities said David Anthony pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and kidnapping and revealed the location of his wife's remains. Investigators said at this point they don't know how Gretchen Anthony was killed.

David Anthony was arrested in New Mexico last year and charged with murder and kidnapping after his wife was last seen on March 20, police said. According to detectives, one neighbor told them that on March 21 between 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., "she heard a woman's voice let out a blood curdling scream" and she heard a woman yelling, "No! No it hurts!"

At least five people received "suspicious" text messages that were allegedly from Gretchen Anthony on March 23 and 24, saying she was infected with an "acute case" of COVID-19.

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"What do you say in a situation like this? How can my words have any weight, given my crime? When will the pain end, knowing that I'm the cause of it?" Anthony said in court, according to the Palm Beach Post. "Coming from me, what words can console a family who has lost someone so dear, so tragically?"