Elizabeth “Nikki” Wilhoite had just completed her last round of chemotherapy for breast cancer when she learned her husband had been having an affair. The two had been living together raising livestock in rural Indiana. The affair caused Elizabeth to want to divorce her husband, Andrew Wilhoite, and she hired a lawyer and submitted a petition for legal separation and divorce in Boone County Circuit Court on March 18.
On March 24, the two had a grueling fight about the affair, which became violent. Andrew hit his wife with a cement, gallon-sized flower pot and dumped her body in the creek near their Lebanon home. He later admitted to killing her, but said that he acted in self-defense claiming she attacked him.
Elizabeth’s body was found under three feet of water. Wilhoite, whose mother is a county council member in Boone, was charged with murder.
An investigation into Elizabeth’s disappearance began on Friday when she did not show up for work. Officers went to her home and spoke to her children who said she was not home and that they were trying to get in touch with her.
The officers were about to leave when Andrew drove up to the property. He told the investigators that he had a fight with his wife and that she was flipping out while he was lying in bed. He also revealed that she had withdrawn $3000 from their bank account to file for divorce.
However, his story started to unravel when they spoke to Elizabeth’s father who told them he believed Andrew had “done something to Elizabeth.”
They searched the Wilhoite home and found bloody sheets which prompted them to bring Andrew in for questioning.
Andrew then revealed that he “physically threw Elizabeth out of the front door of the house” before “he picked up a cement, gallon-sized flower pot that had dirt in it and struck Elizabeth in the face.”
He also went so far as to pick up the pieces of the broken pot and put them in a plastic bag.
He also admitted that he didn’t know if his wife was still breathing when he put her in the creek “because he didn’t check” although he said he did not recall her “groaning or moving at all.”
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Andrew is currently being held without bond at the Boone County Jail. He is expected to have his first court appearance on Tuesday.
