DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Delray Beach residents said they are in disbelief following the arrest of a man accused of killing his wife, chopping her body up, putting her remains in three suitcases and tossing them into the Intracoastal Waterway.
The suspect, William Lowe, 78, lived in a first-floor apartment along Venetian Drive in Delray Beach, according to the police report.
"I think it's just kind of shocking to hear that this happened in your community, such a gruesome act," neighbor Brenda LaRocca said as she walked by Lowe's apartment building.
The community where Lowe lives is on a barrier island surrounded by homes valued in the millions of dollars. An apartment in Lowe's building is listed online for $1.1 million.
"It's a tight-knit community, generally quiet," neighbor Phillipe Goix said.
Delray Beach
Delray Beach man arrested for murder after wife's remains found in suitcases
According to the report from Delray Beach police, Lowe lived in a ground-floor apartment and had access to a second-floor apartment that is believed to be owned by a relative.
No one was answering the door at any of the neighboring apartments when WPTV visited the area Thursday.
The police report mentioned that some neighbors said there were suspicious happenings, including doors opening and closing in the middle of the night and a strange trail stain that led from one apartment to the other upstairs.
Police said they also talked with nearby residents who noticed a man standing along the Intracoastal Waterway five or six times over a period of three days, and one home's security camera had video of it that has been turned over to investigators.
A block away from his home is the Intracoastal Waterway, where police said suitcases with body parts were found July 21.
Inside were the remains of a woman, who police identified through dental records as Aydil Barbosa Fontes, 80.
"We found it almost directly across the Intracoastal on the rocks," pool maintenance worker Jacob Grozier said.
Grozier said his crew first spotted one of the suitcases.
"My pool tech who found it, Eli, said as soon as he saw it with the smell and everything he felt there was something wrong," Grozier said. "So he and his helper used the pool pole to push it and thinking 'Oh, it's going to be an empty suitcase, but it didn't move. It was completely full."
Police said residents recall seeing a man standing along the shoreline five or six times over three days, which was recorded by a home security camera.
"The [discovery of the] suitcases was a story that everybody was talking about, but nobody thought it happened here," a man jogging through the neighborhood said. "I think they thought perhaps, well it's in the Intracoastal it could have been miles away and the current took it down here."
Residents near Venetian Drive said they started noticing a heavy police presence on the block Tuesday, and that's when many started thinking this crime might be closer to home than anyone had thought.
Lowe was arrested Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder and abuse of a dead body. He's being held without bond.
