Frank Schilt pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Teresa “Terri” Schilt, whose body was dumped in a trash bin but hasn’t been recovered despite extensive searches of two landfills.
Under the plea agreement, the 54-year-old Schilt will be sentenced in August to a term of between 32 and 48 years.
Previous court testimony showed Schilt claimed that he killed his wife Feb. 25, 2006, in their Denver home after she wagged her finger in his face when he confessed he had depleted her inheritance and their life savings.
Asked by Denver District Judge John Madden whether he had caused the death of his wife, Schilt quietly said, “Yes.”
Daughter Amy Schilt said the family supported the plea bargain, which resulted in the dismissal of charges of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder.
“It would be better for everyone if we could move on with our lives,” Amy Schilt, 24, said.
She said her mother was a “Betty Crocker Mom” who supported herself as a Mary Kay cosmetics representative and worked part time at the Emily Griffith Opportunity School.
Her disappearance was first reported by Denver Public Schools to police on March 21, 2006, after she failed to report to work for three weeks. Police also were told that Schilt’s younger daughter, Melody, had missed a week of school at John F. Kennedy High School. When she returned, Melody told the staff her mother had become ill while in Chicago and that she and her father had gone there to find her mother.
Prosecutor David Lamb claimed Frank Schilt concocted a series of stories to hide the murder. Lamb also claimed Schilt tried to kill Melody by pumping vehicle exhaust into her bedroom.
Frank Schilt told Denver detectives that he grabbed his wife’s arm and fell against her, and she hit her head twice on a bed headboard.
But Lamb said blood-spatter evidence showed that when Terri Schilt died, her head was 17 inches from the headboard and there was nothing on the headboard to indicate Schilt hit her head.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
