Stephen Capaldi, 57, pleaded guilty Tuesday to murder and other charges and was sentenced to 22 to 44 years in prison, resolving the case just four months after the suspect was arrested and charged, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.
The charges to which Capaldi pleaded guilty were third-degree murder, possessing an instrument of crime, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, obstructing the administration of law or other governmental function, and abuse of a corpse.
On Oct. 12, investigators received their first indication that Elizabeth Capaldi was in grave danger, when the victim’s daughter Emma reported her mom missing. That was two days after Stephen Capaldi admittedly smothered his sleeping wife with a pillow, strangled her, and then dragged her body to the basement to cut up and dispose of the woman’s remains.
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As Law&Crime reported last December on the case, an affidavit of probable cause said that the defendant told “numerous lies” about what happened. He also made some damning internet searches, some as straightforward as: “How to get away with murder”; “how to delete Facebook messages”; “can you avoid police detection by turning off your phone”; “how to control your dark impulses”; “how to disappear and never be found”; and “FBI Handbook of Crime Scene Forensics.”
The defendant also searched “Reciprocating saw” and “DIY blacklight.”
The grand jury report established that prior to the the murder the defendant had “found someone (his mistress) that he loved and who supported his dream of opening a comic book store with his brother while his wife did not.”
According to the grand jury report, the defendant first claimed his wife of thirty years may have left “on her own accord” and that he “had no idea where she could be but guessed that it was probably a beach or somewhere warm.” He said she was “unhappy in their marriage” and that she probably left their home in order to “prove a point.” He claimed the then-couple even held hands on the couch while watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer together before bed the night before Elizabeth was last seen alive. He further claimed that Elizabeth was the one who had admitted having an affair.
The grand jury found the opposite to be true: It was Stephen who had an affair, not Elizabeth; it was Stephen who was unhappy in the marriage; it was Stephen who killed Elizabeth on his own accord; and he knew exactly where she was.
A search of the defendant’s phone confirmed he carried on a six-month-long “emotional and sexual affair” with another woman.
After Elizabeth Capaldi vanished, the defendant’s daughter expressed that she was going to call police.
“Do what you think you have to do,” the killer dad flatly answered.
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Emma said in a victim impact statement that her own father should “never be free from prison to finally leave my mother’s memory in peace.”
“My mother is dead, and my father killed her,” Emma said, according to prosecutors. “I have the love of friends, family, even strangers, but my own father took the person who loved me most.”
Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.
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