A New Mexico woman was arrested in Texas for the murder of her husband, who was found dead and wrapped in plastic in their home’s carport in June.
Authorities initiated a search for Craig Thetford on May 12 following concerns from his family, who hadn’t been in contact with him since January. They asked for a welfare check, and on May 15, Otero County deputies visited his residence. During this visit, his wife, Deana Thetford, explained that they were in the process of divorcing and claimed that Craig had “traveled to Mexico with his new girlfriend for a fishing trip,” according to a report by Law&Crime.
Deana additionally mentioned that she thought he had taken approximately $1.5 million in cash with him, reportedly stored in a pair of home safes for which she claimed not to have the combinations.
In a follow-up discussion, however, Deana altered her account. She now said that Craig’s phone had broken, leading him to get a new one with a different number, which she did not know. Instead of heading to Mexico, she now stated he had traveled to Texas to look after his mother.
Craig Thetford’s sister told investigators that wasn’t true.
Deputies asked Deana Thetford about her home’s security cameras, but she said they weren’t working. They also asked about a five-foot deep hole in her front yard — which she said was for a “raised garden bed.”
Then detectives learned from her daughter that she had spoken with her mother on the phone on May 13, and Deana Thetford told her at the time that she’d had a fight with her husband, and he pushed her down a flight of stairs. She allegedly told her daughter that she was “blinded by rage and shot Craig several times.”
The daughter said her mother didn’t know what to do with the body, so she left it in the pool room where she shot him for several days. Then she wrapped his body in a “rug and plastic, tied something to him, and used the tractor to pull him out of the house.”
At that point, the daughter said, her mother told her she left his body in the carport.
Deputies executed a search warrant on June 17 and found Craig Thetford’s body in the carport, “wrapped in black plastic, blankets, and rugs while covered in a white powder substance and moth balls.” All that was beneath a pile of other items that deputies saw during their other visits to the home.
An autopsy determined that he died from multiple gunshot wounds and had been dead for somewhere between “a few weeks to a few months.”
When Thetford’s body was found, Deana Thetford was in Texas, where she had purchased property in February, paying cash. A locksmith opened the safes that she said she couldn’t access, and deputies found about $84,000 in cash along with firearms and ammunition.
The police report said “people had become curious how suddenly Deana had money.”
Deana Thetford is being held without bond at the Wichita County Jail, where she awaits extradition. She has been charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence.
