COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri man was charged Wednesday with abandoning a corpse a year after his wife’s body was found buried behind their home.
Frank Spencer, 45, has been located in Georgia but was not in custody as of Wednesday afternoon, Boone County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said, without elaborating.
Spencer’s wife – referred to as N.B. in court documents – was last seen by neighbors on Nov. 11, 2018. Relatives reported her missing in early 2019, according to a probable cause statement. Her decomposed body was found Feb. 12, 2019, behind Spencer’s home in Columbia, Missouri.
Court documents do not indicate how she died. Spencer has not been charged in her death.
Spencer told acquaintances he was leaving Missouri for Atlanta in 2018 and said his wife was going with him. One witness told police that Spencer called from Atlanta several times but never let his wife speak on the phone, according to the statement.