Calls From the Inside: The Covid Killer is taking a closer look at the murder of Gretchen Anthony by her estranged husband, David Anthony.
On March 26, 2020, Gretchen was reported missing. She was last seen at her home on Sunshine Drive in the Mallory Creek community of Abacoa in Jupiter, Florida.
Police learned through an investigation that Gretchen, 51, had filed for divorce from her husband, and on March 23, she began sending her friends messages about testing positive for COVID-19.
Gretchen also stated that she had to quarantine for two weeks. But over the next couple of days, she sent more text messages about her condition getting worse.
She told them she went to the Jupiter Medical Center, and from there, she was transferred to another facility operated by the CDC.
Investigators said that the facility didn’t exist, and they wondered if Gretchen was the one behind the text messages or if it was someone else.
When detectives went to her neighborhood, they spoke with a neighbor who said on March 21 that he “heard a really serious woman’s scream, just screaming, like she was being attacked.”
Watch the Latest on our YouTube Channel“And then I heard her scream “No,” and then “It hurts; stop it.”
Another neighbor reported seeing a “soapy substance flowing from underneath Gretchen’s garage door” later that day.
Investigators suspected David of having something to do with her disappearance, but they were stunned when his mother stated that on March 24, he packed his belongings and took off to Costa Rica.
Along the way, surveillance cameras proved that David stopped at a pawn shop, where he sold Gretchen’s jewelry. He told the owner that it belonged to a family member who died of COVID.
Though suspicious, detectives didn’t have any evidence against David. Hence why they were unable to bring him to the police station for questioning, until they received the footage from Gretchen’s security camera.
What happened to Gretchen Anthony?
On March 30, detectives watched the surveillance footage that captured a tall figure waiting as Gretchen’s MINI Cooper pulled into a parking spot.
The tall figure moved to the patio area, then attacked Gretchen and forced her into the garage. She screamed and yelled for Alexa to call 911, but she never programmed her phone to do that.
Later in the video, the tall figure looked up at the camera, and detectives saw that it was David.
On March 31, David was arrested in New Mexico and extradited to the United States to face murder charges.
During the interrogation, detectives questioned him for hours, but he denied his involvement in his wife’s disappearance. Then, nine months later, in December, he admitted to killing Gretchen.
To avoid the death penalty, he told detectives where they could find her remains. He said Gretchen was buried near Bush Road and Indiantown Road.
An autopsy showed that Gretchen was stabbed to death. She had knife wounds to her neck and torso.
Where is David Anthony now?
David pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and kidnapping. And the judge sentenced him to 38 years in prison.
He received credit for time served, which was 295 days.
David is currently serving his sentence at the Martin Correctional Institution in Indiantown, Florida.
Calls From the Inside: The COVID Killer premieres Tuesday, January 17 at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery.