Bride-to-be, 46, killed her fiancé, 82, then lived with his corpse for two months in a bid to hide her crime that was only discovered when his stepdaughter raised the alarm afer not hearing from him for months

A bride-to-be killed her fiancé and then lived with his corpse for two months in a bid to hide her crime, which was only discovered when the victim’s stepdaugther raised the alarm that she hadn’t heard from him for months.

Tabitha Zelida Wood, 46, was found guilty of killing and concealing the death of her fiancé Leroy Franklin Kramer Jr., 82, by a jury in Hall County, Georgia, on Friday, according to WSB-TV.

Kramer’s stepdaughter reported in June 2021 that she was concerned for his safety after not hearing from him for several months.

When Hall County Sheriff’s deputies arrived at his home, they discovered his body and were told by Wood that Kramer, who worked as a long haul truck driver before his retirement, had died in early April.

She revealed to the officers that she had been living with his corpse ever since – for more than two months and even sleeping next to her slowly decaying fiancé.

An autopsy determined that the 82-year-old had died by homicide, with his preliminary cause of death being blunt and sharp force trauma, the sheriff’s office said.

Wood was found guilty of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault, exploitation of an elderly person, concealing the death of another and financial transaction card theft.

During the murder trial, Wood said that she slept beside her dead fiancé for three days before she ‘came to her senses’ and realised he was deceased, something she ‘couldn’t accept’, according to local paper Gainesville Times.

Wood’s relationship with Kramer started after they first met for breakfast at Burger King after being introduced to each other by a friend.

At the fast food restaurant, Kramer explained that he needed help and was tired of living alone. In 2020, Wood then moved into his Candler Road home and got engaged to him the following year.

As the relationship progressed, Kramer ‘became aggressive’, according to Wood.

She claimed he would hit her with a belt, particularly when she would refuse to have sex with him.

She said he had a ‘great mind’, something contested by his stepdaughter as she discussed Kramer’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

Around the time of his death, Wood said Kramer asked her if she wanted to go into the bedroom and have sex, which she refused.

She told the court that she gave in and told Kramer she would have sex with him if that would end the fight. She added: ‘I ended up not doing it and him starting hitting me with a belt again.’

She claimed that later in the evening, Kramer said to her that she was going to have sex with him and marry him, after which he allegedly grabbed her hair as she was trying to force him off of her.

While she said she kicked him, she also testified she ‘possibly could have blacked out.’

She said she ran out of the house and only came back the next morning to make breakfast, but Kramer never came to eat.

She told the court when she went to check on him, he was still laying in the same position in the bed and added: ‘He had blood dripping from his nose. I kept shaking him saying, ‘Leroy, please wake up. Please wake up.’

She slept next to him for three days that April and then decided to hide the body in her house as she believed ‘nobody would listen’ to her story of what happened.

When the body was discovered in June, it had already been in the house for two months, during which temperatures in Georgia typically are as high as 86 degrees.