A woman who buried her husband’s body in the backyard of their home beneath an herb garden for more than two months, has been charged with first degree murder, Polk County deputies said.
64-year-old Barbara Scott, of Goodman Avenue in Lake Alfred, was arrested Tuesday, accused of murdering her husband, 78-year-old Benny Scott, sometime in January.
Barbara Scott initially told investigators that Benny had fallen and hit his head in the shower and she had found him dead. Subsequently, Scott said she had discovered him lying on the shower floor with a gun nearby and assumed he had shot himself. She said she panicked, and “remembered” wrapping him in a tarp, bounding his hands and feet, placing a plastic bag over his head and burying him in the backyard.
Scott also told investigators she picked up the gun from the bathroom floor, along with a box of ammunition, wrapped it in a towel and concealed it in her underwear drawer. During a search of the couple’s residence, a .22 caliber revolver and a box of .22 caliber ammunition were located inside Barbara dresser drawer, investigators said.
During their investigation, deputies learned that Scott had told various stories to family members regarding Benny’s whereabouts.
On March 26, Scott’s daughter, Sonya Braudway, brought her mother to the Lake Alfred Police Department. That’s when Barbara told officers her husband had been buried in the backyard at 200 S. Goodman Avenue. Benny Scott’s body was recovered the following day on March 27, 2012.
Barbara Scott admitted to investigators she dragged Benny’s body on a bathroom rug to the garage where it remained for three days, prior to burying him in a hole that was previously dug for a garden.
Autopsy results revealed that Benny had been shot in the back of his head. The projectile recovered from his skull was consistent with a .22 caliber gun.
A witness told detectives that in conversations prior to Benny’s death, Barbara Scott was disdainful of always having to care for her husband; she was tired of him always wanting and needing assistance.
Barbara Scott was taken into custody on Tuesday and booked into the Polk County Jail.
Deputies also said, Barbara Scott had been arrested in Oklahoma in 1987 on embezzlement charges, convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.
