 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Husband arrested after wife found dead
By TAMARA LUSH, Times Staff Writer TAMPA -- Authorities say Thomas Mitchell strangled his wife on a Pinellas beach last week, then drove her body to Hillsborough County and dumped it in a Seffner field. Barbara Mitchell's body was found Thursday. Thomas Mitchell, 50, was arrested Monday night. Her death was the end of a sad, struggle-filled life, said Betty Smith, Barbara Mitchell's sister-in-law from Auburn, N.Y. She was manic-depressive, Smith said. "Her life was up and down. When she was working, she was happy. When she took her medicine, she was happy." In recent years, she held a string of jobs. Jail records show that since 1999, she had worked at Hardees, KFC and Publix. Barbara Mitchell was 49 when she died. She had three children from a previous marriage when she married Thomas Mitchell in November 2001. Neither had a permanent address. Authorities said they were staying in their car. On Monday, Pinellas County Sheriff's deputies found Thomas Mitchell in Tierra Verde. He agreed to talk to Hillsborough detectives and drove to meet them, said Hillsborough sheriff's Lt. Rod Reder. Mitchell told investigators that he and his wife had an argument on July 3 at a beach near Tierra Verde, and that is when he strangled her, Reder said. Thomas Mitchell has been charged with first-degree murder. He is being held at the Hillsborough Jail without bail. He has no previous criminal record in Florida. -- Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
|
