An Indiana farmer has been charged with the murder of his wife who had just finished her chemotherapy after surviving breast cancer.
Elizabeth ‘Nikki’ Wilhoite, 41, was hit with a “gallon-size cement flower pot” in her face allegedly by her husband Andrew Wilhoite, after she sought a divorce over his affair, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed in the case.
“This lady just finished her last round of chemo today … very proud of you,” Mr Wilhoite, 39, said in a Facebook post sharing her smiling picture on 18 March.
On 26 March, her body was found “partially submerged in approximately three feet of water” after her husband allegedly “hit her with a blunt object”, Boone County Indiana Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Elizabeth “had just finished up chemo last week” after her fight to “stay alive”, her longtime friend Mary Smith told WRTV.
“She’s fighting to stay alive, to see her kids grow up. To have it end like this, it’s just a tragedy that no one should have to go through. It just shouldn’t be that way,” Ms Smith said.
“Why? What happened to just make [Andrew] lose control?”
During the investigation, Mr Wilhoite told the Indiana police that he had an affair that his wife found out about “and [that she] had taken the news hard,” according to the affidavit.
He said he thought they would be able to work it out to save their 12 years of marriage but she hired an attorney and handed him a “legal notification of separation”.
Elizabeth submitted her petition for legal separation in Boone County Circuit Court on March 18, the same day her husband celebrated her last round of chemotherapy.
“Andrew stated that he refused to sign the documents without his own attorney reviewing it,” the affidavit added.
He said that Elizabeth started yelling at him during the argument and accused her of “physically striking” him before “he picked up a cement, gallon-sized flower pot that had dirt in it and struck Elizabeth in the face”, the affidavit said.
Mr Wilhoite was arrested and now faces a preliminary charge of first-degree murder. He is currently being held without bond at the Boone County Jail.
In her eerie last post on 24 March, Elizabeth had posted a quote by Emma Grace that read: “You deserve a life that doesn't hurt”.
