Elizabeth “Nikki” Wilhoite just wanted a fresh start.
After being diagnosed with breast cancer last fall, the 42-year-old had just completed her last round of chemotherapy—an achievement the mother-of-two documented on social media.
“She was such a strong woman!” Mary Smith, one of Elizabeth’s childhood friends, told The Daily Beast on Monday. “She had just finished up chemo last week.”
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But authorities say the milestone was almost immediately eclipsed when Elizabeth learned that Andrew, her husband with whom she raised livestock in rural Indiana, had been having an affair. Elizabeth hired a lawyer and submitted a petition for legal separation in Boone County Circuit Court on March 18.
On the same day, her husband took note of her health progress online—a post all the eerier for what prosecutors say came next. “Very proud of you,” Andrew Wilhoite wrote alongside a photo of his smiling wife of 12 years.
On March 24, during a particularly grueling fight about the affair and Elizabeth’s step toward divorce, prosecutors allege, Andrew Wilhoite snapped. They say he hit his wife with a cement, gallon-sized flower pot in the face before dumping her body in a creek near their Lebanon home—and later admitted to killing her, albeit while claiming she attacked him.
The Boone County Sheriff’s Department found Elizabeth’s body on March 26 under three feet of water. On Monday, Wilhoite—whose mother is a county council member in Boone—was charged with murder in an incident that left friends and community members stunned.
“What pushed him to lash out in such a way?” Smith asked. “It’s so upsetting to wonder if she had any idea she was in danger.”
According to a probable-cause affidavit obtained by The Daily Beast, the investigation into Elizabeth’s disappearance began this past Friday, when her co-workers at Indiana Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery reported that she did not show up for work. In her initial call with authorities, a co-worker indicated that Elizabeth “was having issues with her husband” and had recently “filed for divorce.”
“It was not like Elizabeth not to show up for work,” the co-worker added, according to the affidavit.
Describing her friend as a “devoted mother” and “fun,” Smith said Elizabeth’s public battle with cancer came in marked contrast to a more opaque domestic life.
“She had a smile that would light up a room. She could always make you laugh with her stories,” Smith said. “I didn’t know they had problems. It’s hard to know a friend was most likely hurting and struggling with serious issues besides cancer—which is huge—and to not know.”
When officers showed up to the Wilhoites’ home about 30 minutes outside of Indianapolis, they were greeted by three of Andrew Wilhoite’s children, one of whom was from a previous marriage. Two of the children indicated that Elizabeth was not home and that they had been trying to contact her themselves.
The stepdaughter, the affidavit states, added that “Elizabeth might be with her sister and that Elizabeth leaves when she gets upset.” As authorities were starting to leave the family farm, the affidavit states, Andrew Wilhoite “pulled into the driveway in a blue tractor” and indicated that his wife was missing.
“Andrew stated that they had a pretty good fight last night, and she was drunk,” the affidavit states. “Andrew Wilhoite stated, ‘As you can see,’ as he was pointing to scratch marks on his neck.”
Wilhoite then allegedly began to tell authorities that his wife had slept on the couch the night of March 24 after a fight and that he did not see her the next morning when he left early to “haul corn.”
“Andrew stated that he was laying in the bed and Elizabeth was flipping out,” the affidavit states. “Andrew advised that it is not the first time that an incident like this has occurred. Andrew Wilhoite stated that he’s done things to Elizabeth that he shouldn’t have before.”
He added that he had also just found out from his accountant that approximately $3,000 had been taken out of their bank account and that he had been advised that Elizabeth “had a lawyer and was filing for divorce,” the affidavit says. Wilhoite then allegedly went as far to say that he believed “maybe something drug-related… occurred” with his wife.
But authorities say Andrew Wilhoite’s story began to unravel once authorities spoke to Elizabeth’s father, who clarified that his daughter took out money from their bank account on March 18 because “she was going to have to divorce Andrew.” Her father, Thomas Richards, added he believed maybe Wilhoite “did something to Elizabeth,” the affidavit says.
During a search of the property, authorities discovered blood on the bedsheets and pillow of the Wilhoites’ master bedroom, “along with small droplets on and around the door and inside the master bathroom on the sink.”
The search for Elizabeth prompted the Indiana State Police to intervene. During that interview, Wilhoite confessed to having an affair that his wife recently found out about—“and [that she] had taken the news hard,” the affidavit says. He added that while he thought the couple, who had married in 2009, were going to work it out and had even planned to go to counseling in May, his wife blindsided him by hiring an attorney and handing him a “legal notification of separation” and requesting he sign it.
“Andrew stated that he refused to sign the documents without his own attorney reviewing it,” the affidavit added.
The night before Elizabeth went missing, the farmer said, the couple spent about three hours in the garage fighting about the affair. Eventually, the argument continued into their bedroom, where Andrew Wilhoite told authorities Elizabeth “came at him” in a combative manner and began hitting his back.
“Elizabeth was yelling at Andrew for having the affair and was emotionally upset with him. Andrew stated that he has hit Elizabeth in the past but did not during this particular altercation,” the affidavit states. “Elizabeth left the room and went to sleep on the couch, while Andrew went to sleep in the bed.”
Investigators say that while Wilhoite at first insisted that nothing else happened that night, he eventually confessed to killing his wife hours into the interrogation. He allegedly told police that Elizabeth began yelling at him about the affair and started “physically striking” him and telling him to leave the house.
Wilhoite said he “physically threw Elizabeth out the front door of the house” before “he picked up a cement, gallon-sized flower pot that had dirt in it and struck Elizabeth in the face,” the affidavit states.
“Elizabeth fell to the ground and Andrew stated he didn’t know what to do so he took Elizabeth’s body, placed it in his pickup, and threw it in a nearby creek that is east of the residence,” prosecutors added. They alleged that Wilhoite went so far as to collect the broken pot pieces and put them in a plastic bag.
The affidavit notes that when investigators asked Wilhoite if his wife was still breathing when he threw her in the creek, he admitted “he didn’t know because he didn’t check” but that he did not recall “her groaning or moving at all.” He also described to investigators how he threw his wife’s body over the wall of a bridge into the creek, and that he believed she was still there.
Later that morning, Wilhoite threw the broken pieces of the flower pot out of his truck window as he was traveling to Linden, Indiana, to drop off a corn shipment, authorities say.
Police immediately placed Wilhoite under arrest, and he is currently being held without bond at the Boone County Jail. He was expected to have his initial court appearance on Tuesday and his family—including his mother—did not immediately respond for comment.
Elizabeth’s last social media post included a quote by author Emma Grace.: “You deserve a life that doesn’t hurt,” the March 20 post read.
For Smith, the realization that her longtime friend was going through so much more than she knew was devastating.
“I think we all just have so many unanswered questions,” she told The Daily Beast.
