In the spring of 2020, the life of 28-year-old Caucasian female Maria Pew Weimelt was tragically cut short in her Maple Grove, Minnesota home. On April 30, 2020, her husband, Joshua Fury, reported her missing, telling police she had gone for a walk and never returned. This report triggered a search by local authorities, including a helicopter search, but initial efforts to locate Maria were unsuccessful.
Family and friends, however, soon raised concerns about the couple's troubled marriage, describing Fury as controlling and possessive. They revealed that Maria had been planning to leave him.
The investigation took a grim turn when police executed a search warrant at the couple's home. With the help of a K-9 unit trained to detect human remains, investigators were led to a crawl space in the lower level of the house. There, they made the devastating discovery of Maria's body buried in a shallow grave. An autopsy later determined her cause of death was asphyxiation from a plastic bag that had been duct-taped over her head and nose.
Faced with the evidence, Joshua Fury's story crumbled. He confessed to killing his wife on April 20 after an argument. He admitted to strangling her, placing the plastic bag over her head, and then burying her body in the crawl space in an attempt to conceal his crime. Fury was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
In July 2020, Joshua Fury pleaded guilty to the intentional second-degree murder of his wife. As part of a plea agreement, he was expected to be sentenced to 38 years in prison. However, before his sentencing could take place, Fury was found unresponsive in his jail cell. His death was ruled a suicide. The tragic end to this case left a community in mourning and a family committed to raising awareness about domestic violence in Maria's memory.
