A decade after a man went missing, his killer was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday in a Gwinnett County courtroom, officials said.
A jury deliberated for less than two hours before finding Jeffrey Emerson Moulder, 30, guilty of malice murder and two counts of felony murder in a January 2015 strangulation, Gwinnett District Attorney’s Office spokesman Marcus Garner said. Moulder was sentenced to life without parole for the death of 21-year-old Samuel Waters.
“Samuel Waters’ family is able to get justice after 10 long years,” DA Patsy Austin-Gatson said in a statement. “Our goal was to ensure that this family was able to get closure for this tragic loss. This was not an easy case to close because the body was never found. But our team was able to successfully piece together evidence to prove the defendant’s guilt.”
Until 2021, Waters was classified as a missing person. The last time he had been seen was Jan. 4, 2015.
Authorities said Moulder lured Waters to a back road in Lawrenceville and strangled him to death. He then “dismembered” Waters’ body and disposed of the remains in several areas near Lake Lanier after “unsuccessfully” attempting to burn it, Garner confirmed.
At some point after the killing, officials said Moulder told at least seven people, including his first and second wives, about what he had done to get advice on how to dispose of the body. Testimony from the trial revealed he also described the locations where he had buried parts of the body.
According to Garner, Moulder committed the crime because his first wife, who had a child with Waters, was considering divorcing him. Moulder then attempted to bring Waters back into the woman’s life to avoid paying child support for his own and Waters’ child. Garner confirmed that Waters was not involved in his child’s life and was never married to the woman.
“(The woman) told Moulder that to salvage the marriage, he would have to get Waters back out of her life,” Garner said.
It wasn’t until 2021 that Lawrenceville police were informed of Moulder’s confession, authorities said. After an argument during which Moulder strangled his second wife until she was unconscious, she separated from him and told police about his confession, Garner stated.
Investigators subsequently searched several areas for Waters’ remains with cadaver dogs, but did not make any discoveries. The dogs, however, found evidence that human remains had once been in one of the burial locations.
During the trial, a cadaver dog expert explained to the jury how a K-9 could identify where remains had potentially deteriorated.
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