A Texas man who decapitated his newlywed wife was found dead after he hanged himself in a Houston prison cell on Friday.
Jared James Dicus, 24, was sentenced to 40 years in prison in August 2024 after pleading guilty to the gruesome murder of his wife, Anggy Diaz, 21.
The couple married in October 2022, and Dicus killed her just four months later on January 11, 2023.
Dicus's parents called 911 after they found Diaz's body in a small cottage behind their home where the couple was living.
In the cottage near Magnolia, Texas, a city about 45 miles northwest of Houston, Waller County Sheriff's deputies found Diaz's body next to the bed, in a large pool of blood with multiple stab wounds from a kitchen knife.
Her head had been severed, and the officers found it in the home's shower along with the knife.
At the time, Waller County Sheriff Troy Guidry said: 'Everything happened on the property. And all parts and pieces were recovered and submitted for evidence.'
On the evening of January 16, staff at the Wainwright Unit in Houston County found Dicus hanging from the neck in his single-person cell, according to a state death report.
Life-saving measures were attempted but unsuccessful, and he was officially pronounced dead at the scene by EMS staff shortly before 11pm. Further details, such as his behavior prior to the hanging, have not been made public.
Dicus was in prison for decapitating his wife, Anggy Diaz, 21
The couple married in October 2022, and Dicus killed her just four months later on January 11, 2023
Dicus was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the murder, and he was being held at the Wainwright Unit in Houston County
Just hours after decapitating his wife, Dicus stole a beer from a convenience store, Chepes Meat Market, where Diaz used to work before becoming a fitness coach shortly before her death.
Surveillance footage captured the murderous husband arriving at the store in his car around 11.40am, before going to the back and taking a beer out of the fridge.
He then walked out past the counter without paying and chugged the tallboy in the parking lot.
Dicus's parents said later that day, he had walked into their home and said something that prompted them to search the cottage on their property. That is when they found Diaz's body, which they immediately reported to police.
Dicus and Diaz's relationship was tumultuous. At a press conference shortly after the murder, Sheriff Guidry said his department had responded to several domestic violence calls at the couple's property.
The husband's unstable behavior was also made clear just two months before the murder when he was arrested on a DWI charge. After being brought to local jail, he threatened police officer and other staff according to court records.
The records also said he was punching windows out of frustration, forcing police to put him in a restraint chair.
According to the slain wife's friends, she was an immigrant from Nicaragua who was working two jobs to help pay for her mother's cancer treatment back home.
Although the couple had serious problems, their relationship appeared deceptively strong and positive on social media.
Just two weeks before her murder, Diaz posted a picture of herself and her husband on Christmas Day to her Instagram, wishing her friends and family a ‘happy merry Christmas.’
“Merry Christmas my beautiful wife, my trophy,” Dicus responded to the post.
Diaz’s last post on Instagram, a photo of her lunch, was shared just hours before investigators believe she was killed.
Dicus’s sentence had him ineligible for parole until 2043 at the earliest. He would have been 63 years old when released if he had served his full sentence.
Dicus had been in prison for just over one year and four months when he was found dead.