Karlton Michael Dudley's put him near where investigators found his wife, Sarah Dudley, dead, police said. (Mugshot: Collin County Detention Center;
A man's cover story in his wife's disappearance fell apart thanks to an ankle monitor that tracked him to the lake near where cops found her body, according to authorities in police in Plano, Texas. Karlton Michael Dudley, 37, is charged with abuse of a corpse. Police did not say how they believe Sarah Dudley, 32, died.
"The preliminary cause of death is currently undetermined by the medical examiner's office," they wrote Thursday.
The defendant is currently locked up in the Collin County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond for that charge, online records show. On top of that, he's also there on a separate $60,000 bond in connection to a 2022 case for aggravated sexual assault of a child. Authorities booked him into jail on Wednesday.
Plano cops said that Karlton Dudley was the person who reported his wife missing on Saturday, according to KXAS. He allegedly asserted that he last saw her that morning at their home on Bishop Road. He also said he was at Hidden Cove Park that evening when he believed she was working, police said. But Sarah's employer reportedly said she did not make it to work that day.
Sarah Dudley was found dead on Monday at Lake Lewisville, according to police. It is along Hidden Cove Park.
Her husband told investigators he could not get into the water that Saturday evening because he could not inflate his kayak, so he just walked near the water, Officer Jerry Minton, a Plano police spokesman, told Law&Crime. Authorities looked at the ankle monitor Karlton Dudley was wearing while out on bond in the sexual assault case, the officer said. Minton told Law&Crime that this device put the defendant in the area where the body was found. GPS showed Karlton Dudley was out into the water, further than he would have been able to walk or swim, the PIO said.
Minton also said that the defendant had described an object being missing from the home. That object was actually at the lake, said the officer, declining to specify what this object was.
Law&Crime could not immediately reach the defendant's attorney in the abuse case.
"It just still doesn't feel real," Patrick Dowd, Sarah Dudley's brother, told WFAA. "She was just this openly warm person that was always willing to help anyone. She was so sweet and caring. We wish we could call her out of the blue, and she would answer, you know?"
He started a Venmo account to support the family as they made arrangements for Sarah Dudley's funeral service.
The siblings of Sarah Dudley, 32, tell me they want the severest punishment for her husband, who is now jailed in connection to her death.
Dudley was found on Lake Lewisville earlier this week.
Karlton Dudley, 37, was arrested and charged yesterday. pic.twitter.com/CPTnZiGgDT
— Matt Howerton (@HowertonNews) June 30, 2023
Asked if the family wanted Karlton Dudley to face the harshest punishment possible, Sarah Dudley's sister Army Pattison said, "Absolutely."
"We want justice for our sister," Dowd said.
Note: We added more information from police.
