A 43-year-old man who reportedly snapped over his wife’s romantic relationship with someone else allegedly strangled her, put her body in a metal trash can, and drove around with it for days before dousing it with gasoline and lighting it on fire, leaving it for firefighters and police to find on trailhead southeast of Las Vegas.
Freddie Wright was booked into the Henderson Detention Center on Monday on charges of one count of open murder, arson, and destroying evidence in the death of a woman that local media outlets, citing police reports, say is Janell Bowen. A police news release does not identify her.
The body was discovered on Nov. 21. The Henderson police and fire departments responded to the 1700 block of Sunset Road just before 8 p.m. about a fire in a metal drum. Once the fire was put out, authorities found the body of a woman inside, police said in a news release.
Freddie Wright faces charges in the death of Janell Bowen. (Crime scene screenshot from KLAS-TV/YouTube; mug shot from Henderson police)
Details about the allegations came out in reports by local media citing an arrest report that included alleged statements made by Wright to investigators about what happened.
He allegedly told police he confronted her after she got a “suspicious phone call” about another relationship, “snapped” and strangled her before putting her body in a trash can, driving around for days, before pouring gas on it and setting it on fire, the network reported.
“He then wrapped a cord around her neck until she became ‘lifeless,”” the report said. “He then wrapped Bowen in blankets, put her onto a wagon, and placed her outside the home, trying to hide her from the children.”
He allegedly drove around with the body in his minivan before going to a park, putting her body in a trash can and leaving it at an abandoned hotel lot before returning the next day, loading her body in the back seat of a rental car and driving around again. He allegedly ultimately doused the barrel with gas and lit it on fire, the station reported.
Law enforcement discovered the body inside a 55-gallon drum. The body was covered in blankets and wearing only a pink top. Coroner’s officials found “significant evidence of asphyxiation by strangulation, marks on her upper back, three fractured ribs, and apparent evidence of vaginal trauma,” CBS affiliate KLAS reported.
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