Debary, Fla. (AP) — A funeral home director fatally stabbed
his wife after she threatened to leave him, then buried her
with a woman whose family held a closed-casket service police
said, Friday.
Mark Villella confessed after detective told him they were
foing to exhume the grave, said Gary Davidson, a spokesman for
the Volusia County Sherriff's Office.
Authorities were tipped to the crime by Exelee Louise
Villella's sister, who said that the last time she talked with
her sister on Aug. 5, the couple were arguing.
Deputies said Villella first told them his 29-year-old wife
left in the middle of the night, but they doubted that she
would leave her toddler son, and her car was in the
driveway.
Authorities said Villella, 39, stabbed her while she slept
on Aug. 5. The next day he took the body to the Deltona
Memorial Funeral Home & Cemetary in Orange City, about 40
misle northeast of Orlando, and kept it in a cooler until the
Aug. 9 burial of Marjorie Hutchinson, 89, authorities said.
Villella was arrested Thursday and charged with first-degree
murder. Investigators dug up the grave Friday and found his
wife's body.
