David Anthony
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David Lamar Anthony (born 1948), better known as David Anthony, is a convicted murderer who allegedly killed his wife and her two children. The Anthony murder case and subsequent trial received much media attention in the United States, particularly in Arizona.
Anthony's wife, the former Donna Romero, had been married once before, to Samuel Romero. She had two children from her first marriage, Danielle and Richard Romero.
[edit] Disappearance and trial
On July 7, 2001, Donna Anthony and her children were declared as missing by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department. Two weeks later, on July 21, David Anthony was arrested in connection with the disappearances.
A well publicized trial followed. Anthony's defense introduced Rosa Romero, who had been married to Samuel Romero. According to court records, Rosa Romero declared that Samuel Romero had a violent character and had threatened her before, and she suspected it was him, not David Anthony, who may have been involved in the disappearance of Donna Anthony and her two children.
Vince Imbordino, a deputy attorney working with Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, accused Anthony of killing his wife and her children in order to hide sexual assaults he had allegedly been committing against Danielle Romero. Imbordino also said that Anthony had stolen money from Donna Anthony, and he signaled David Anthony as a man who enjoyed flirting with numerous other women.
On April 1, 2002 he was found guilty of three charges of first-degree murder, despite the lack of the victim's bodies being found.
As time went by, the mystery of Donna Anthony's disappearance as well as those of her children grew.
[edit] Bodies found
On October 18, 2005, construction workers who had been contracted to work on the building of a Walmart store found two trash drums hidden under a tree in Buckeye, forty miles from downtown Phoenix. Skeletal remains were found inside the drums.
Police were called to investigate the area, and, after collecting the skeletons, DNA testing was performed, confirming that the skeletons belonged to Donna Anthony and her daughter, who was fourteen at the time of her death. On October 31, police investigating the area found a third trash bin, with more remains inside. The third trash can was found with help of a metal detection machine that had been loaned by the Phoenix Police Department from the United States Air Force. Maricopa county sheriff Joe Arpaio, a particularly outspoken sheriff, told the Arizona Republic that he was "99 percent sure" that the remains inside the bin belonged to Donna Anthony's son Richard, who was twelve at the time of his death.
Arpaio has expressed his views on the Anthony murder case, saying on a press conference that "(he hopes) to be around however long it will take to see the needle go into (Anthony's) arm", adding that "(he guarantees he) will be at the execution chamber (to witness Anthony's death)." [1]
David Anthony is currently appealing his murder convictions.
