Man pleads guilty to wife’s 2014 disappearance, slaying

TARRANT, Ala. – An Alabama man who led police to his wife’s remains two years after she went missing has pleaded guilty in her shooting death.

Jefferson County Deputy District Attorney Shawn Allen said Wednesday that 45-year-old Joseph Sylvester Poe III was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on an intentional murder charge in the death of Paula Anne Worcester.

AL.com reports that Worcester’s sister reported her missing in July 2014, and she wasn’t located until Poe was arrested on unrelated charges in July 2016. He told Tarrant police he needed to talk to a detective about her disappearance, and then admitted to shooting her and leaving her body in a wooded area.

Police found skeletal remains in that location.

Poe had originally been charged with capital murder.

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Information from: The Birmingham News, http://www.al.com/birminghamnews