Cincinnati, OH: Paynter admits he murdered wife in 2002

For more than eight years, Bonnie Dickerson fought to keep the memory of her slain daughter alive so her killer wouldn’t get away with murder.

With Daniel Paynter’s guilty plea today to the 2002 murder of Lori Ross Paynter, Dickerson can finally rest.

“I miss her so deeply. I’ll never get over this,” Dickerson, 68, of Miami Township, said of Lori Ross Paynter.

“She didn’t deserve to die.”

Paynter, 57, admitted he murdered his wife in December 2002, days after he was arrested for domestic violence after she told authorities he threatened to kill her.

Paynter admitted he choked and shot his 35-year-old wife to death. She was shot in the nose, the temple, the back of the head and side of the neck, Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor Megan Shanahan said.

Paynter then buried her body and, Shanahan said, dug it up when he feared heavy rains would expose the body. He then dumped her body behind a motel in Elizabethtown, Ky., 140 miles south of Cincinnati, where it was found days after her 2002 disappearance.

Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Winkler immediately sentenced Paynter to 18 years to life in prison, the mandatory sentence, after Paynter pleaded guilty to using a gun to murder his wife.

“It’s not enough but that’s all the law allowed,” Dickerson said after the sentence.

“My daughter will be dead longer than that. He may not live to come out, but who knows?”

She also believes Paynter killed her daughter to collect a $200,000 life insurance policy.

Rob Dziech, Paynter’s attorney, told the judge prosecutors had “an OK case” but not a great case against Paynter before his client confessed to them after his February arrest. Paynter’s guilty plea, Dziech added, came days after the death of Paynter’s father and because a remorseful Paynter wanted to stop the pain his family and his wife’s family have endured.

Dickerson, 57, has health issues, including heart problems. Dickerson believes a guilty heart has weighed on him.

“I know he did it. I worked for eight years to prove that he did do it,” she said.

The coroner ruled that Lori Paynter died of gunshots and asphyxiation. That’s because when her body was found her mouth and ears were caked with mud, Shanahan said.

“The photos of this poor woman with mud in her teeth were disgusting,” Shanahan said.

The day was emotional for Dickerson. Finally, she said, she can get on with life instead of fighting for the truth.

But she’ll never forget.

“I’ll miss my daughter every day of my life,” Dickerson said, “for the rest of my life.”