Brian Williams pleads guilty to decapitating Melody Gambetty

Brian Montez Williams pleaded guilty to murdering Melody Gambetty in her Clarksville, Indiana, apartment in 2021. Williams allegedly decapitated Williams and chopped off all her fingers and toes. (Williams photo: Clark County Jail; Gambetty photo from her obituary)

An Indiana man who allegedly murdered a woman and then proceeded to decapitate her and cut off all her fingers and toes and stuffed them in a suitcase that was found in his home has pleaded guilty, according to court records.

Brian Montez Williams pleaded guilty on Monday to murder in the July 26, 2021, death of 67-year-old Melody Gambetty at her apartment in Clarksville, Indiana, which is on the border with Kentucky. Williams, 38, faces up to 55 years in prison, Louisville Fox affiliate WDRB reported.

A probable cause arrest affidavit says the Clarksville Fire Department was dispatched to an apartment fire and once they entered the home, they found a woman later identified as Gambetty on the ground, decapitated and missing all her fingers and toes.

Detectives talked with neighbors who said there was a suspicious man wearing a tank top and rubber boots going door-to-door that day at the apartment complex asking people if he could do “community service work.” One of the neighbors said the man identified himself as “Brian W.” and gave him a phone number so the neighbor could call him if he had any work in the future. Neighbors also described the man as “very polite,” the affidavit said.

A detective dialed the number and Williams answered and told them where he lived. They went to his home and he came out wearing the same rubber boots neighbors had described, according to the affidavit. He confirmed the story that neighbors had told detectives about seeking community service work and said he left the area around 5 p.m. and went to a friend’s house at a nearby apartment complex.

Surveillance footage from a home across the street from Gambetty’s apartment shows a man matching Williams’ description walking into her apartment at 12:42 p.m. and exiting at 3:51 p.m. carrying two suitcases. Williams puts the two suitcases in the backseat of Gambetty’s car and then drives away, the affidavit said.