A Southern California woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison last week for the brutal murder of her boyfriend, which resulted in a grim cover-up lasting nearly eight years. Trista Spicer, 43, was convicted of second-degree murder by a San Bernardino jury for the 2014 killing of Eric Mercado, 42, her partner at the time.

According to police and court records, the tragic event unfolded following a dinner dispute. Spicer, during her trial, recounted how she attacked Mercado with a cast iron skillet after he criticized her cooking. The altercation escalated, leading Spicer to fatally stab Mercado in the neck with a kitchen knife, as reported by The San Bernardino Sun.

After the murder, Spicer enlisted the help of a friend to conceal the crime. Together, they wrapped Mercado’s body in a deflated air mattress and hid it under a concrete staircase in Spicer’s backyard. In a further attempt to hide the evidence, she later had a homeless acquaintance construct a brick wall over the makeshift tomb.

The case remained unsolved for years, with Mercado’s family reporting him missing in 2014. It wasn’t until nearly a decade later that the truth emerged. Spicer confided in her then-boyfriend about the hidden body, as she needed to remove it due to her family’s plans to sell the house, finally shedding light on Mercado’s disappearance.

Spicer enlisted a friend to help her wrap the corpse in a deflated air mattress, and the two hid the body beneath a concrete staircase in her backyard. She later recruited a homeless friend to construct a brick wall over the space to entomb Mercado’s body, she said.

Mercado’s family reported him missing in 2014, but his whereabouts remained a mystery until nearly eight years later, when Spicer told her boyfriend at the time she needed to remove his corpse because her family wanted to sell the house, according to the Sun.

On August 23, 2022, cops served a search warrant of Spicer’s house acting on a tip from her then-boyfriend and made the grisly discovery.

“During the service of the search warrant, investigators observed what appeared to be a makeshift tomb on the property,” read a statement from the San Bernadino Police at the time. “Investigators entered the makeshift tomb and located human remains.”

Spicer said in court that Mercado beat her continuously, a charge denied by his family.

Mercado’s sister, Mahira Torres, addressed Spicer at her sentencing on Friday, calling her brother’s killer “evil,” according to The Sun.

“You took my brother’s life, and you shattered ours,” said Torres.

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Torres said the mystery of her brother’s disappearance for eight years devastated their family.

“As time went by, life just got harder and harder to live for me, as well as my family — the thought of not knowing what happened … not knowing if he’s alive or dead, or suffering waiting to get saved — that really broke me,” Torres said, according to The Sun.

“My family went eight years trying to get answers, and it seemed like everybody knew about it except his close family,” she added.

Torres described Mercado as a loving father and person of integrity who taught her to chase her dreams, The Sun reported.

“I will always feel thankful and blessed for the love I received from my brother,” Torres said. “He taught me to go after anything in life with a fearless mindset.”

The San Bernadino Sheriff was holding Spicer before her transfer to California state prison, according to court documents.