{"id":17856,"date":"2012-11-05T16:31:28","date_gmt":"2012-11-05T21:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=17856"},"modified":"2012-11-05T16:31:28","modified_gmt":"2012-11-05T21:31:28","slug":"u-s-marshals-arrest-man-accused-of-killing-wife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=17856","title":{"rendered":"U. S. Marshals Arrest Man Accused Of Killing Wife"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sentinel City Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last Friday, a Hillsborough County man, accused of killing his wife, was arrested in Greenville, South Carolina, at the home of his sister. The arrest came about a week after the Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office issued a warrant for his arrest.<\/p>\n

Christopher Keith Belcher,<\/strong> 43, is facing charges of second-degree murder and arson of an occupied vehicle in connection with the death of Mrs. Gwendolyn Hill Belcher, <\/strong>43, of Seffner.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, September 16th<\/sup>, human remains were discovered in a vehicle that had been set afire at 7021 Taylor Road. Mrs. Belcher\u2019s <\/strong>family had reported her as a missing person two hours before the discovery of the torched car was reported to police.<\/p>\n

Deputies were unable to identify the make and model of the burned car. However, after further examination, it was determined that the vehicle was a black 2000 Nissan Maxima, owned by Mrs. Belcher.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner positively identified the skeletal remains removed from the car as the body of Mrs. Belcher. <\/strong>Dental records <\/strong>were used to make the <\/strong>identification.<\/p>\n

Reported Missing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mrs. Belcher\u2019s<\/strong> family reported her missing around 4:30 p.m., on Sunday, September 16th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

One of her daughters interviewed by police stated that she last spoke with her mother on September 15th<\/sup>, around 4 p.m. When she attempted to contact Mrs. Belcher<\/strong> later that night, the call went to voicemail.<\/p>\n

The woman said she attempted to call her mother shortly before 9 a.m. the next day, and again reached her voicemail. Shortly after 11 a.m., texted her mother, but still did not receive a response. When the daughter called Mrs. Belcher\u2019s <\/strong>place of employment, she was told that Mrs. Belcher<\/strong> was not scheduled to work that day.<\/p>\n

The woman told police it was very unusual for her mother not to answer her phone calls for such an extended period of time.<\/p>\n

Interview With\u00a0<\/strong>Belcher\u2019s Daughter<\/strong><\/p>\n

During an interview with Belcher\u2019s<\/strong> thirteen-year-old daughter, she told police she had gone to the party with her father. She said they returned home around 9 p.m.<\/p>\n

After returning home, Belcher <\/strong>became engaged in an argument with Mrs. Belcher.<\/strong> She further told police that at some point, the quarrel became physical, and she observed her father hit Mrs. Belcher<\/strong> in the face with an open hand.<\/p>\n

The teenager further told police that her father sent her to her room. She also said she heard Mrs. Belcher<\/strong> scream, \u201cChris<\/strong> stop!\u201d on more than one occasion.<\/p>\n

She also said she heard a loud beating banging noise. The teenager told police that at some point during the physical confrontation, she called her own mother because she was scared.<\/p>\n

The teenager told police that once the yelling had stopped, her father came into her room and told her to go to bed. She never saw Mrs. Belcher<\/strong> again, she told police.<\/p>\n

Belcher\u2019s Statements<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the initial interview, Belcher<\/strong> stated that he had gone to a birthday party the night before with his daughter and returned home around 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

He said his wife left shortly after, but did not tell him where she was going. He said early that Sunday morning, he discovered that Mrs. Belcher <\/strong>was not at home and her car was gone. He said he attempted to contact her by cell phone, but didn\u2019t get an answer.<\/p>\n

Police obtained a search warrant and discovered what appeared to be possible blood and blood spatter in several areas of the residence. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) advised investigators that a full DNA profile of the blood swabs matched the DNA profile of Mrs. Belcher.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When asked about his daughter\u2019s statements, Belcher <\/strong>told police he had several drinks at the birthday party and did not remember getting into an argument or fight with his wife.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor Last Friday, a Hillsborough County man, accused of killing his wife, was arrested in Greenville, South Carolina, at the home of his sister. The arrest came about a week after the Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office issued a warrant for his arrest. Christopher Keith Belcher, 43, is facing charges […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}