Left: Deana Thetford (Wichita County Sheriff”s Office). Right: Craig Thetford (Facebook).
A New Mexico woman who allegedly told police that her missing husband went fishing in Mexico with another woman was arrested for his murder after his body was found in her carport.
Deana Thetford, whose age was not available, was located in Texas after New Mexico authorities issued a warrant for her arrest on first-degree murder charges. Now in custody at the Wichita County Jail, Thetford is accused of shooting her 60-year-old husband, Craig Thetford, and, using a tractor, dragging his body into the carport of the home they shared.
According to court records reviewed by Law&Crime, Craig Thetford was reported missing in May after his family members said they had not heard from him since January. On June 17, his remains were found wrapped in plastic and covered by a white powder and other trash.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
Police said the search for Craig Thetford began on May 12 when family members requested a welfare check at his home. Otero County Sheriff’s deputies went to the Thetford home on May 15 and spoke with Deana Thetford, who told them that she and her husband were getting divorced and that he had “gone down to Mexico with his new girlfriend to fish.”
According to police, Deana Thetford showed sheriff’s deputies two safes that belonged to Craig Thetford, for which she did not have the combinations. She told police that her husband kept up to $1.5 million in cash in those safes and that she believed he had taken the cash with him to Mexico.
Deana Thetford was interviewed by police again, but during that second conversation, her story changed. She told police that Craig Thetford had broken his phone and gotten a new one, but she did not know his new phone number. She also now said that her husband had gone to Texas to take care of his mother, a detail disputed by Craig Thetford’s sister.
A sheriff’s deputy who spoke to Deana Thetford at her home noticed security cameras, which she claimed were not working. He also asked about a 4- to 5-foot-deep hole in her front yard. She stated it was going to be used for a “raised garden bed.”
Police later learned that Deana Thetford’s daughter “had information” about the disappearance of her stepfather and spoke to her over the phone on May 13. The daughter told police that her mother told her that she and Craig Thetford had a fight and he pushed her down a flight of stairs. After the purported physical altercation, Deana Thetford allegedly told her daughter that she was “blinded by rage and shot Craig several times.”
Not knowing what to do with his body, Deana Thetford told her daughter that she allegedly left Craig Thetford where he fell — in the pool room — for up to two days. She then allegedly wrapped her deceased husband in a “rug and plastic, tied something to him, and used the tractor to pull him out of the house.”
Deana Thetford allegedly told her daughter that the body was still in the carport.
A search warrant for the home was executed on June 17, when the body of Craig Thetford was found where his wife said she left it — in the carport, “wrapped in black plastic, blankets, and rugs while covered in a white powder substance and moth balls.” He was found underneath a pile of other items that was captured on body cameras when the sheriff’s deputy had visited the previous month.
An autopsy found that Craig Thetford was shot multiple times and that he had been dead anywhere from “a few weeks to a few months.” His manner of death was ruled a homicide.
By the time police searched the Thetford home, Deana Thetford was in Texas, where she had purchased property in Seymour in February using cash. The safes that Deana Thetford told police in May that she could not open had been opened by a locksmith; inside was “approximately $84,200” along with firearms and ammunition.
Police said that “people had become curious of how suddenly Deana had money.”
Deana Thetford was arrested in Texas and taken into custody at the Wichita County Jail, where she is being held without bond. She is charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence.
