Husband dismembered wife's body

Nicholas Kassotis and wife Mindi were on the run — but it soon turned out that he was the real threat

- WORDS: GAIL SHORTLAND

Nicholas Kassotis created a web of lies

In December 2022, a man tracking deer in the woods around Portal Hunting Club in Georgia came across what he thought was a dead hog in a ditch. When he went to look more closely, he was horrified to discover it was the legless and headless torso of a woman, and dialled 911.

Police arrived at the scene and cordoned off the area. Within a three-mile radius they found a knife, a storage box with blood inside, clothing — and a leg. The site was declared a crime scene, and an investigation began.

Over the next few days, more body parts were found, including a head that had been buried. It was a gruesome end for the victim. Her body had been left to decompose and be scavenged by animals.

It appeared that the woman had been killed a few weeks before, but police were struggling to identify her. They created a composite sketch and released it to the public, but it produced no leads. They compared it to missing person reports, but again, nothing. They then sought the help of a lab specialising in advanced DNA genealogy testing, who were able to create a profile from the victim's remains. Six months later, in May 2023, police were able to identify the victim.

She was 40-year-old Mindi Mebane Kassotis. She had lived 50 miles from the crime scene, in Savannah, Georgia, with her husband of six years, Nicholas Kassotis, also 40. He was an ex-navy judge advocate general — a military lawyer. After leaving the navy, he had told people he was working for a software company.

When police went to inform Kassotis that his wife was dead, he said he already knew - but couldn't explain why she was in the woodland. Kassotis went on to concoct an elaborate tale that was like a plot of a thriller movie.