Texas Man Who Decapitated Newlywed Wife Found Dead in Prison Cell

A husband who decapitated his wife only four months after their wedding was discovered dead in his Texas prison cell on Friday. 

Jared James Dicus, 24, pleaded guilty to the heinous murder of his 21-year-old wife, Anggy Diaz, in 2024, in what the New York Post called an “open-and-shut trial.” He had been sentenced to forty years in prison and his earliest parole date was in 2043. 

Per a state death report obtained by KLTV, Dicus was found hanging in his single-person cell at the Wainwright Unit in Houston County. 

Prison staff performed life-saving efforts when they discovered him, but EMS ultimately pronounced him dead at the scene before 11:00 p.m.

Dicus and Diaz got married in October 2022, despite opposition from close friends who viewed the relationship as tumultuous.

“Diaz’s mutilated corpse — including her severed head that was ditched in the shower with a knife — was found in the couple’s Houston-area home on Jan. 11, 2023,” according to the Post. “Dicus’ father, who lived in a larger home on the same property as the couple’s cottage, came across Diaz’s body and immediately called the cops.”

In the few hours between the murder and the arrest, Dicus went to the Chepes meat market where Diaz worked and stole a can of beer, which he drank in the parking lot, surveillance footage revealed. 

One of Diaz’s close friends told the Post in 2023 that Dicus was insecure about the marriage.

“He posted a video saying, ‘She is mine,’ to social media, and it was weird because no one was questioning that … it was out of nowhere,” said the friend, who declined to be identified. 

The friend told the outlet she saw Diaz at a Christmas party less than a month before the murder. She said Dicus was also there but stormed out suddenly during the party “looking really upset” while other attendees enjoyed themselves.

The friend said she suspected Diaz was a victim of domestic violence, although “she never said there were any problems.” The friend speculated that Diaz was “just embarrassed to admit her relationship wasn’t perfect.”

Police similarly concluded that Diaz was likely experiencing domestic violence at the hands of Dicus, according to the report. Just days after the murder, Waller County Sheriff Troy Guidry said the department had received prior “disturbance” calls about the couple, although nothing that matched “the level of violence” of Diaz’s murder.

“Diaz, who started working as a fitness coach not long before her death, aspired to settle down and have children, but her friend advised that she ‘avoid getting pregnant so quickly’ after tying the knot with Dicus,” according to the report. 

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.