A husband who strangled his wife with his bare hands and then left their baby girl in bed as he disposed of her remains in the woods has been sentenced to a minimum of 15 years.
According to reports, 30-year-old Matthew Fisher strangled 29-year-old Abi to death at their home only six months after they welcomed their baby girl.
The husband lied to cops and said his wife of six years was missing and claimed she had been upset the day before as she was about to go back to work.
But police discovered that his car had been used when he claimed to be asleep.
Fisher then said that his wife fell down the stairs and when he tried to help her, he ‘lost it’ when she revealed that she wanted to leave him.
Moments after Abi, a primary school teacher, was reported missing, he wrote on Facebook: “Has anyone seen Abi? If you have can you please let me know or get her to give me a ring?”
But the court heard that a pathologist did not find Fisher’s admission accounted for the full spectrum of blunt force trauma injuries Abi suffered to her abdomen, skull and face.
Leeds Crown Court heard that Fisher drove Abi’s body and dumped her in the woods. The body was discovered more than 12 miles from their home in Castleford, West Yorks.
Prosecutor James Lake also told the court that while Abi’s worried parents were at Fisher’s house, he was checking news and police sites to see if the remains had been discovered.
Abi’s grieving mother, Andrea Richardson, delivered an emotional victim impact statement and said: “We treated you like a son and you lied to our faces. You listened to me saying I hoped she had postnatal depression as that could be treated.
“You sat there and said nothing, knowing you had killed my baby girl, dragged her through the undergrowth and dumped her in the woods where you played as a child.
“There were hundreds of police searching for Abi and teachers from her school were searching the fields, using the torches from their mobile phones for light.”
The bereaved parent continued: “Her death has changed our lives immeasurably. I miss my daughter so much it’s surreal. I feel like it isn’t happening. It’s some sort of bad dream.
“All sorts of things remind me of her. I don’t manage to get through a day without crying for her.”
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