Amanda Smith Hayes and her husband Grant Ruffin Hayes III were found guilty in 2014 in the 2011 death and dismemberment of 27-year-old Laura Ackerson.
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Prosecutors said the couple killed Ackerson at their Raleigh apartment during a long-running custody dispute over Grant's two oldest children.
Ackerson's body was cut up with a power saw, put in coolers, and then driven in a rented U-Haul to Amanda's sister's house in Richmond, Texas.
But new details suggest Smith tried to dissolve the remains in acid before throwing them into an alligator-infested Fort Bend County creek, according to investigators
"Once in Richmond, the couple first attempted to use muriatic acid to destroy Ackerson's body," a press release stated. "When that didn't work, they took a boat onto Oyster Creek and dumped Laura's body parts into the water with hopes that alligators would eat her remains."
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Smith was already sentenced to 13 to 16 years in prison, while Hayes was sentenced to life.
Last week, a jury convicted Smith of tampering with evidence to impair its availability in an investigation, a second-degree felony.
Investigators said she was sentenced to serve 20 years in prison, consecutive to her sentence in North Carolina.
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