Wife’s body still missing after blood found in husband’s truck, cops say. He gets prison
The husband of a missing Virginia woman was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison — but her body still hasn’t been found, authorities said.
Adrian Lewis, 50, received the sentence Jan. 19 after a jury convicted him of a first-degree murder charge in September 2023, records show.
As part of his sentence, Lewis can’t have contact with his and his wife’s children until they are 18, WAVY reported.
Lewis’ attorneys declined to provide a comment to local news when the man was found guilty, WVEC reported. McClatchy News could not reach the defense attorneys for comment on Jan. 22.
His wife, Shanitia Eure-Lewis, was last seen in Newport News July 17, 2022, according to the Newport News Police Department.
The couple was seen traveling together that morning, police said. She was supposed to be heading back to church when her family said she never showed up.
At the time, state police believed her to be in “extreme danger.”
The day after the mother of two disappeared, investigators also said they found Lewis at the airport headed to Jamaica with his wife’s passport and credit cards, WVEC reported.
Investigators said they found his truck that same day, and after recovering evidence from it, the missing person investigation became a homicide investigation.
Authorities said the wife’s blood was found in Lewis’ truck, and in the week leading up to her disappearance, he had looked up murder sentences in Virginia and what happens when you shoot someone in the head, WTKR reported.
On July 19, 2022, Lewis was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony, although he was found not guilty on the latter charge, records show.
The day after the sentence was handed down, Eure-Lewis’ family held an illumination service in her memory.
Her family called her a “beloved mother, daughter, sister, niece, cousin, aunt and friend.”
But they still want to recover her body.
“Not knowing where she is, not being able to give her the proper burial, she didn’t deserve that,” her sister Deidra Eure told WTKR. “She deserves to be laid to rest properly.”
This story was originally published January 22, 2024 at 12:59 PM with the headline "Wife’s body still missing after blood found in husband’s truck, cops say. He gets prison."