Texas man William Oddo is accused of killing his fiancée, LaVera Wardell, and living with her body for days before fleeing the stench
According to police, Oddo allegedly admitted he “wanted to lay with her” and spent a full three days in their shared home with her body
He was arrested weeks later at a motel and remains jailed on $160,000 bond
For days, police say, a Texas man slept next to his fiancée’s corpse after shooting her in the head — only leaving when the smell became unbearable.
“I wanted to lay with her,” 52-year-old William Joseph Oddo III allegedly told Denton police, according to an affidavit obtained by Fox 4, CBS Texas and WFAA.
The victim, 39-year-old LeVera Wardell, was found shot dead in her apartment on May 19 after a resident reported “a very foul smell,” according to a press release posted to the department’s Facebook page.
Police found Oddo at a Mount Pleasant motel on June 2 and charged him with murder and evidence tampering. After his arrest, Oddo allegedly admitted to killing Wardell during a heated argument on May 6, claiming that she came at him with a knife, per the affidavit.
A full week after the shooting on May 13, security footage captured Oddo purchasing cleaning supplies. Beforehand, according to the document, he stayed with Wardell’s corpse “for a full three days.”
Oddo fled the apartment soon after a neighbor called police complaining of the foul smell on May `19.
As of this week, according to an online jail roster, Oddo remains in custody on $160,000 bond. Wardell’s official cause of death has yet to be released pending a full toxicology report from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner.
