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Woman allegedly forced to decapitate lover after husband discovers affair

A man who discovered his wife was having an affair kidnapped and killed the other man and forced his wife to decapitate him, according to police.

In what one prosecutor called an “especially heinous and gruesome” case, authorities allege that the 30-year-old man from New Hampshire, US, kidnapped Jonathan Amerault, 25, on September 19, shot him to death in a car and hid the body at a campsite.

He has been charged with capital murder and beating and threatening his wife, who has been charged with falsifying evidence.

She told police her husband forced her to slice Amerault’s wrists while he was still alive and to cut off and bury his head after he died.

The Associated Press is not naming the couple because doing so could identify the woman, who says she suffered extreme abuse.

Picture of Jonathan Amerault. Source: Facebook
Jonathan Amerault was allegedly kidnapped and killed by a 30-year-old man who discovered his wife was having an affair with him. Source: Facebook/New Hampshire State Police

Both pleaded not guilty in separate court hearings on Friday afternoon (local time) and were ordered held without bail pending trial.

Appearing by video feed from the jail, dark bruises surrounded the woman’s eyes, and her lawyer said everything she did was under extreme duress and fear for her life.

“She helped solve this crime. Rather than conceal evidence or falsify evidence, she led the police directly to evidence,” Richard Guerriero said in unsuccessfully arguing for her release with electronic monitoring.

“She was beyond cooperative. It’s hard to imagine being beaten like that, threatened with your life, being fearful and then cooperating with the police, but that’s what she did.”

Assistant Attorney General Scott Chase agreed the woman was cooperative but said that was taken into account in deciding which charges to bring.

He argued that her release would endanger the public, and that she had opportunities to get away from her husband and report the crime, including when they were in separate cars driving 200 miles north.

“She was cooperative after she got caught,” he said.

According to a police affidavit, the woman told investigators that her husband went through her cellphone on Saturday and discovered the affair.

She said he repeatedly assaulted her, put a gun in her mouth and choked her until she passed out.

Late that night, the husband used his wife’s phone to lure Amerault to a park in Rindge, police claim, where he allegedly violently assaulted him and tried to force his wife to shoot him.

When she refused, he forced Amerault into the back of the victim’s car and shot him three times while his wife was driving, according to the affidavit.

Pictured is a cabin among trees at the campsite in far northern New Hampshire. Source: WHDH
Jonathan Amerault's body was buried at a campsite in far northern New Hampshire. Source: WHDH

The wife told officers she was then forced to drive Amerault’s car, containing his body, to the campsite, while her husband drove another vehicle.

“He communicated to her that once the sun came up the next morning he would forgive her,” police wrote in the affidavit.

At the campsite, the woman alleged her husband ordered her to cut off Amerault’s head so his body could not be identified by dental records, bury it and wrap the rest of the body in a tarp.

He later left her there to dispose of the body and returned home, according to the documents.

On Tuesday, two Fish and Game conservation officers who found the campsite noticed a large brown tarp that later was revealed to be covering Amerault’s car.

They later noticed another object wrapped in a tarp in a shallow brook; that turned out to be Amerault’s body.

“I’m in big trouble,” the woman told the officers, according to the police affidavit.

Chase, the prosecutor, said the brutality of the crime combined with destruction of evidence in a capital murder was especially alarming.

“Had this defendant successfully destroyed that evidence, her husband, the alleged murderer, may very well have evaded detection and/or apprehension,” he said.

While the state’s capital murder law covers deaths during kidnappings and six other scenarios, lawmakers eliminated the death penalty last year.

Those convicted under the statute are sentenced to life in prison without parole.

There was no dispute over bail at the husband’s brief hearing. Neither spoke other than to confirm they could hear the attorneys and judge.

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