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MAYS LANDING, N.J. (AP) — A woman convicted of killing her husband and hiding his remains in storage containers with air fresheners to mask the odor was sentenced Wednesday to 55 years in prison by a judge who said the court hadn't seen anything so heinous since Al Capone ordered the St. Valentine's Day massacre.
Loretta Doyle Burroughs, 63, wept throughout her sentencing as relatives of her late husband, Danny, talked about the horror of losing him and finding out that she dismembered him and took his remains with her when she moved, The Press of Atlantic City (http://bit.ly/1DBS34l) reported.
Doyle Burroughs was arrested in May 2013 after Danny Burroughs' remains were found inside the guest bedroom closet of the Ventnor home she was moving out of. She had told family and friends that he had left her for another woman shortly before the couple was due to move to Florida in August 2007.
Investigators testified that the containers were each wrapped in nine trash bags, with air fresheners, dryer sheets and scented beads to mask the smell. They began re-examining the case after a family member provided new information to the new cold-case unit of the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office in February 2013.
Doyle Burroughs said in addressing the court that the killing wasn't planned. But friends had said she didn't want to move to Florida, which was her husband's idea, and that was her motive for killing him.
In sentencing her, Judge Michael Donlo said, "This court has not seen anything so brutal and heinous as this since Al Capone ordered the St. Valentine's Day massacre." Capone was believed to be behind the slayings of seven people in Chicago on Feb. 14, 1929, by hired killers dressed as policemen.
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Information from: The Press of Atlantic City (N.J.), http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com
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