woman had been dismembered

Laura Ackerson (above) and her boyfriend Grant Hayes (below) had a tumultuous relationship. The couple had two kids (below) together while he worked as a musician and she promoted his career. But while on a work trip to the Virgin Islands, Hayes took up with another woman


The couple eventually separated. Hayes went on to marry his new wife Amanda (directly above) last year, and the couple had a baby together.

But that posed problems for Hayes. He wanted to move to the Virgin Islands, where he could make better money as a musician. But doing so would force him to lose custody of the two young children he had with Laura, who was still living in North Carolina.

Last month, he'd been granted temporary custody of the kids, since Laura was unemployed and living with his parents. But she was starting a new business and going to school. She planned to petition for joint custody next month.

According to police, that's when Hayes fashioned a plan to get rid of her once and for all.

Laura was last seen on July 13 dropping off the kids with Hayes' at a neutral place in Wilson, North Carolina. But two days later, she failed to show up to retrieve the kids.

On July 18, a friend reported her missing. Detectives finally got their first major break in her disappearance. Some 1,200 miles away, in Oyster Creek, Texas, police discovered the body of a woman floating in a swamp.

The woman had been dismembered. Police discovered her head and legs littered across the water.

They would also discover that just days after Laura disappeared, Hayes and his wife bought several ice chests and rented a U-Haul trailer. Police believe they sawed and macheted Laura's body to pieces back in North Carolina, then drove her remains all the way to Texas, where they dumped her in a swamp near Amanda Hayes' sister's home.

Though detectives haven't formally identified the body, they're 99 percent sure it's Laura's. Grant and Amanda Hayes were both arrested yesterday in connection with the murder.