Husband tied concrete block round wife’s neck and threw her off a bridge

Some people search a lifetime for their soulmate, but Rodolfo ‘Rudy’ Arellano and Elizabeth Pule seemed to have struck lucky as teens.

The pair met at Diamond Hill-Jarvis High School in Fort Worth, Texas, and their romance lasted past graduation.

They went on to marry and have four children together – three sons and a daughter.

Rodolfo, 36, and Elizabeth, 28, stayed in Fort Worth and raised their family, but by 2016 Elizabeth knew their marriage was over.

It wasn’t a decision she would have taken lightly – the regular church-goer was known as the glue that held her family together, and always put others first.

But Elizabeth told Rodolfo that she wanted a divorce and moved in with her parents, aware she was facing a future as a single mum.

Elizabeth, a medical assistant, had been living with her parents for just a week when she went out with colleagues after work on 15 April 2016.

Despite everything that was going on in her life, she was in good spirits.

In the early hours of the next day, she messaged a friend to let her know she’d ‘safely made the journey back to her parents’.

But she had sent the message while outside their house in her car – she never actually made it inside.

Hours later, Elizabeth’s mum, Juanita, reported her daughter missing.

She’d found Elizabeth’s car abandoned outside, with the key still in the ignition and her handbag and mobile on the passenger seat.

There was no way Elizabeth had left of her own accord – someone had taken her.

During their enquiries, officers went to Rodolfo’s home and were surprised he didn’t seem worried about his estranged wife’s disappearance.

He said he’d last seen Elizabeth two days earlier and had no idea where she might be.

Perhaps Rodolfo hadn’t cared for Elizabeth as much as he’d claimed?

But as police continued to look for Elizabeth, they didn’t realise she had already been found.

Death by drowning

A few hours earlier, a fisherman had reported hearing screams at around 3am, then witnessed someone falling from the Interstate 820 bridge into Lake Worth.

The fire department eventually recovered Elizabeth’s body from the water.

She was wearing her maroon medical scrubs.

Tied around her neck was a rope, which was attached to a 119-pound (8½ stone) block of concrete that still held a fence post.

At first, it was thought Elizabeth’s death was suicide – the weight used to make sure it was a fatal jump.

But the medical examiner would determine that although she’d died by drowning, Elizabeth was a victim of homicide .

The concrete had a sinister purpose.

“We believe this was an attempt to conceal the body,” investigators said, and it meant she hadn’t stood a chance when she hit the water.

If it hadn’t been for the witness hearing the screams and spotting Elizabeth fall from the bridge, her body might never have been discovered.

Elizabeth’s loved ones were told the tragic news that she was dead and had died at the hands of someone incredibly cruel.

She was still alive when she was thrown off the bridge and had screamed for her life.

Her family tortured themselves, knowing how scared she would have been.

Had an opportunist abducted her as she’d got out of her car?

It was the concrete that would lead police to the perpetrator – and the community was stunned when he was identified.

Detectives discovered Rodolfo had torn down a fence for a friend months earlier.

It included wooden posts anchored in concrete.

Parts of concrete were found in Rodolfo’s yard and in the back of his pick-up truck, and it matched the concrete used to weigh Elizabeth down.

Had he really thrown the mother of his children off a bridge, attached to a slab of concrete?

It seemed unthinkable.

Rodolfo told police he’d been at home at the time of the incident, but CCTV had captured his truck near the home of Elizabeth’s parents.

It also transpired that while Elizabeth was out with her friends, Rodolfo had messaged her, asking when she’d be done with work.

He also called but she didn’t answer.

Mobile phone records showed he was near her workplace at the time he tried to make contact – then he moved on to the home of Elizabeth’s parents, presumably to catch her coming home, so he could abduct her.

Life sentence

Just 10 days after Elizabeth was found, Rodolfo was arrested and charged with her kidnap and murder.

Rodolfo strongly denied playing any part in her death, but as the trial approached he knew he was facing the possibility of a death sentence if found guilty by a jury.

So, in February this year, Rodolfo made a deal.

He would plead guilty to kidnapping and capital murder in return for a life sentence without the chance of parole.

Elizabeth’s family agreed, knowing it brought with it the certainty he would never be released.

At the official sentencing, many loved ones had Elizabeth’s picture pinned to their clothes.

Elizabeth’s sister, Johanna Pule, gave an emotional statement.

She recalled having to buy a turtleneck for her deceased sister to wear, to cover the brutal rope marks around her neck, then standing next to Elizabeth’s coffin with Rodolfo before it was discovered he’d killed her.

“You knew what you did, yet you stood in front of her body crying with me,” she said to him in court.

“You told me the day of her burial that you wished it was you in there and how you wanted to just lay there with her.

That when you married her, you knew it would be till death do you part, but didn’t know that it would happen so soon. You’re a coward.”

Johanna and her other sister, Alejandra Pule, held up a large photo of Elizabeth, who they often called ‘Betty’, for everyone to see.

Alejandra told him, “You kidnapped her and then you threw her away in the lake like nothing, and she was everything to me.

We all trusted you. We all cared for you, and you betrayed us all.”

 She added that worst of all was the fact Rodolfo hadn’t stopped to consider his and Elizabeth’s four children, now aged seven, 10, 12 and 14.

“I had to tell them that their dad, the person who should have been their protector, killed their mom,” Alejandra said, insisting no punishment would ever be enough.

“You are a monster. I hate you and I will never forgive you.”

Fidel Galvan, Elizabeth’s stepfather, thanked prosecutors and detectives for bringing Elizabeth justice.

He told Rodolfo that he would miss out on his wonderful children growing up.

“We can’t understand it. How could he leave his children motherless?” Fidel said.

“He had a trophy wife, who was very respectful and very loved by many.

“His machismo and pride got in the way.

He figured he would be the talk of others by Elizabeth leaving him. I hope you rot in hell.”

Elizabeth’s family vowed to raise the children with love.

“We will make sure that my sister’s kids remember that my sister loved them.

She lived for those kids.

They were her world,” Johanna said.

“And we’re going to continue to talk about her every single day, like we still do, and remember her and keep her memory alive always.”

Rodolfo was officially sentenced to serve life behind bars without the chance of parole.

He offered no explanation or apology for his actions.

Elizabeth had loved Rodolfo since high school, and had given him four beautiful children.

But in her final moments, she could only fight helplessly as he attached a concrete death noose around her neck and threw her to her watery grave.

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