Naman Shrestha
Having celebrated New Year’s 2016, a 39-year-old pregnant woman named Anndrea Caruth was looking forward to welcoming her child a few months later. Unfortunately, fate had other plans as she suddenly vanished from her Bronx home a few days after New Year’s. Hours of search later, her loved ones’ worst nightmare came true as she was found dead. All the intricate details of the case and the investigation that ensued are explored in Investigation Discovery’s ‘A Body in the Basement: Conditional Love,’ which also features in-depth interviews with Anndrea’s family and friends and the officials who helped solve the case.
Anndrea Caruth’s Remains Were Found in the Crawl Space of Her Basement Room
Born in 1976 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Anndrea Caruth was welcomed into the world by Clorence Collis and William Caruth as a little bundle of joy. She grew up alongside her brother Alex in the Caribbean, while her father worked at the Buccament Government School in Dubois. Sometime between the 1980s and 1990s, Anndrea and Alex relocated to the US with their father, with allegedly no objection from the mother. By the 2010s, Anndrea had been operating a daycare facility out of her home on Corsea Avenue in the Bronx’s Baychester neighborhood, where she lived with her long-time boyfriend, Lincoln Grant, and her father, William Caruth. In January 2016, Anndrea was five months pregnant with Lincoln’s child and looking forward to becoming a mother.
On January 3, 2016, she had a brunch planned with one of her friends, but she never showed up. When she couldn’t be contacted by her loved ones, Lincoln, who last saw her around 10 am on January 3, reported the 39-year-old woman missing. As the authorities got involved, they searched the home shared by Anndrea, Lincoln, and William, and in the early hours of January 6, they discovered the remains of the missing woman in a crawl space of the basement apartment, where she lived. A hole, covered with a piece of plywood and a carpet, was dug into the floor of a closet, and the remains were covered in gravel. The medical examiner determined that the cause of her death was ligature strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head, with multiple injuries to her brain and skull. The police canvassed the crime scene and collected several pieces of evidence, including a hammer.
Anndrea Caruth’s Killer Was Having a Financial Dispute With Her
As part of the investigation, the police spoke with Anndrea Caruth’s live-in boyfriend, Lincoln Grant, and her father, William Caruth, to get a better understanding of the circumstances surrounding her mysterious disappearance. Lincoln claimed that on January 3, 2016, his pregnant girlfriend went downstairs to get dressed for her brunch meeting with her friend, and that was the last time he saw her. He told the authorities that he believed she had gone outside as scheduled. After the investigators discovered Anndrea’s remains in the crawl space with the help of canines, they found William’s DNA under her fingernails.
When they confronted him with the forensic evidence found at the scene and his access to the area where the remains were found, he reportedly asked for a lawyer. Upon digging deeper into the relationship between Anndrea and her father, William, the detectives learned that they were in the middle of a disagreement over money, which stemmed from a second mortgage taken on the house. In the late afternoon on January 6, 2016, William was taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in connection with the death of Anndrea Caruth.
William Caruth is Serving His Sentence at a New York Prison Today
Two years after his arrest, William Caruth stood trial for the murder of his daughter, Anndrea Caruth, in May 2018. During the trial, the prosecution presented a list of forensic evidence against the defendant, including his DNA found under Anndrea’s fingernails. They told the jury that William struck her head repeatedly with a hammer, which resulted in skull fractures and brain injuries. In the end, on May 18, 2018, the jury convicted William Caruth of first-degree manslaughter. About five months later, on October 3, 2018, his sentencing hearing took place.
Anndrea’s loved ones, including her cousin and boyfriend, took the stand and gave emotional victim impact statements. An unidentified woman stated, “What has been taken from us is a vibrant, hard-working, full-of-potential, young lady. Angie’s friends understand that we cannot bring her back, but we are asking that justice for Angie be rendered.” Her cousin also said that the convict had shown no remorse for his actions. The killer also took the stand said, “I dream about my daughter everyday, I cry, I cry everyday. I miss my daughter.” Ultimately, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing his daughter in their Bronx apartment. Currently, 72-year-old William Caruth is incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, with his earliest release date scheduled for June 2037.
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