Murder By Beef Roast

  As Annie put away the groceries the argument between her and her husband, Tom, escalated. Annie knew one thing for sure, once Tom hit a certain peak in his temper she was going to get hit.

  Annie tried her best not to rile Tom any further.But no matter what she said it just seemed to anger him more. Annie knew she couldn't win this fight. As Tom screamed at her all she could do was wonder where and how he would hit her. Would it be a punch in the face or a steel toed boot to her ribs? Afterward he always said the same thing.. She brought it on herself.

  Annie and Tom had been married for seven years. Annie came from a home where her father hit her mother and the kids. Annie figured that beatings were just a part of married life. Her self esteem was so low from Tom's criticism that she no longer considered herself attractive. There was a time when men used to whistle at her. Those days were gone. Now she was just frumpy ol' Annie.

  Tom was well known throughout the entire county by law enforcement. He was a barroom brawler, a shoplifter, a burglar, and a petty thief. All the local cops knew him and his disdain for the law. Tom was always being arrested something.

  Annie was putting pork chops in the freezer when her hands came across a large frozen object. A five pound beef roast. Suddenly withouth thinking Annie grabbed a hold of it and when Tom wasn't looking she hit him with that roast. Tom hit the floor.

  Annie couldn't believe what she had just done. Her, Miss Meek and Mild, never hurt a fly. She had actually hit Tom! Annie was so timid she wouldn't put out mousetraps when she had seen a mouse. Instead she cornered the mouse and caught it with some gloves on and let it loose in the corn field behind their house.

  Blood was coming from Tom's head and his ears. Annie assumed he was unconcious and tapped at his cheeks to wake him up. Then she realized he wasn't breathing.

  "Oh my God, what have I done?" thought Annie. I've killed him! She began CPR. After a few minutes she checked for a pulse. Nothing! Annie knew then that she had killed Tom. He may have been her abuser for years, but to murder him? Not Annie!

  Now what? Call the police? Tom was hated by so many cops any one of them would be glad to see him dead. And Annie knew she would never get e fair trial because she was Tom's wife. She had to think fast.

  First thing she needed to do was hide the body until she had a plan. Annie was athletically built but dragging Tom's six foot frame across the kitchen floor into the garage was strenuous. They owned a huge chest freezer and it hardly had anything in it. Annie emptied it. Using all her strength she put Tom into the freezer. Thank God they lived in a rural area, what some would call farm country.

  Annie needed to get rid of that beef roast, the murder weapon. She turned on the oven and got out the large roasting pan. In it she put the roast. She would have to eat a lot of beef roast to get rid of that roast. She could feed some to the dog or put some down the garbage disposal if she had to. Once it was done Annie almost threw up trying to eat some of the roast.

  Annie needed a way to get rid of Tom's body. Two thoughts popped into her head. One was about a real murder and the other from a movie.

  The next morning Annie went to a rental store and rented a chain saw and a chipper/shredder. She used an alias to rent them.

  That night she went out into the garage and spread out a large tarp. Annie lugged Tom out of the freezer. He seemed to weigh even more frozen. She took off all of his clothes. She put on a welder's apron. She started the chain saw. Annie knew she needed to cut To'm's body into smaller parts. She figured she'd begin with his legs.

  As she began sawing little frozen chips were flying up hitting her in the arms and face and getting into her eyes. Then it dawned on her that those tiny pieces were from Tom's body. She shut off the chain saw and took two steps. She threw up all over the tarp. She made a run for the door. Once in the bathroom she emptied the entire comtents of her stomach into the toilet. This was too gorey for her.

  "I'm not cut out for this!" thought Annie." I don't have the guts to be a murderer." thought Annie. She was Miss Meek and Mild. Never hurt a fly. When they had mice she refused to use traps and preferred catching them with gloves on and letting them go behind their house in a cornfield.

  "I just can't go through with this." she thought. Maybe she could call her parents and explainwhat happened. They would understand. They had been after Annie to leave Tom for years. Her plan had gone too far now to call her parents.

  Once her stomach settled down she went back into the garage. She started up the chain saw and continued where she had left off. Cutting off Tom's arms and legs so repulsed her that it took her all night along with violent episodes of vomitting. Each time she used the chain saw it caused a puddle of slush to form at her feet. This puddle contained bits of bone, hair, etc.

  As each piece was severed off Annie placed it in a garbage bag and put it back into the freezer. When she was done she balled up the tarp and threw it in a garbage bag. Then she stripped down to her underwear. She put all of her clothes, even her shoes in a garbage bag. Tomorrow was garbage collection day.

  She redressed and set about to cleaning the garage. She then sprayed the entire chain saw with household cleaner and took it outside and rinsed it off with the garden hose.

  The next day she put Tom's body parts into the trunk of her car and hitched the chipper/shredder to the bumper. She drove down to the river. She drove up and down the winding road until she found a spot where no one could see her from the road. She unhooked the chipper/shredder and aimed it towards the fast flowing river. It was March and the river moved too fast to ice over.

  Annie realized there was no turning back now. True killing Tom was an accident, but freezing him and sawing him up was not. Annie knew she would never get a fair trial if she got arrested. The cops disliked her because of Tom, guilt by  association.

  Annie slowly started feeding Tom's body parts into the chipper/shredder. Again she was overcome with frantic need to vomit. The horrible sounds of bones being ground up almost caused Annie to pass out. She kept thinking, "I'm not a murderer," "I'm not a murderer." over and over over in her head. Who was she trying to convince? Eventually she dry heaved her way through the disposal of the body. She hooked the chipper/shredder back up and went home.

  Annie cleaned the chipper/shredder with household cleaners and the garden hose just like the saw. She then dried them off and returned them to the rentel store.

  Annie knew that people would start asking where Tom was. Two things were in her favor. One was that his own family didn't like him and wouldn't care where he was. The second was that Tom had a habit of disappearing for days at a time. When his friends would call she would say he packed his stuff up and moved to Arizona. She then gave all his clothes to the Salvation Army.

  Days turned into weeks. No one questioned her story about where Tom had gone. But everyday Annie kept waiting for the police to come and arrest her. Just the sight of a squad car made her pulse race. She felt she looked guilty and people could tell. She had nightmares of Tom being alive and coming to get revenge. Or she would dream that she was going to burn in hell for taking a life.

  One day there was a knock at the door. It was two local sheriff's deputies. Annie's heart was in her throat. She composed herself and answered the door. One of the men said they had a warrant for Tom's arrest. Annie told them the Arizona story but they wanted to come in the house and look around. She let them in. After they thoroughly looked through every room and closet, they left. Annie gave a sigh of relief.

  After a year Annie filed for a divorce claiming abandonment as her grounds. She told her lawyer and the court she had not heard from Tom in over a year. She was granted a divorce.

  It has been ten years since Annie killed her husband. She is remarried to a wonderful man who treats her like a queen. They have three beautiful children. Sometimes, in the middle of night Annie will cry out in her sleep. She always awakens to realize she it was only a dream.