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Background: The Zanesville, Ohio, home where David Cole Sr. was found dead on Feb. 10 (Google Maps). Inset: Brittany Cole (Muskingum County Prosecutor’s Office).
An Ohio woman who was studying nursing pleaded guilty to giving her father-in-law a fatal overdose of medications before going on vacation — and hiding his body for over a month.
Brittany Cole, 37, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole in 16 years on Feb. 26, just over two months after she admitted to killing her father-in-law, David Cole Sr., 80, on Dec. 25, 2024. According to a press release from the Muskingum County Prosecutor’s Office, Brittany Cole gave her father-in-law a total of six capsules of Tylenol with codeine as well as ZzzQuil, “knowing it would be fatal.” The next day, Brittany Cole started telling family members that David Cole Sr. “had moved to Cincinnati” — and then the family went on a weeklong vacation in Orlando, Florida, while David Cole Sr.’s body remained in the house.
Prosecutors said that Brittany Cole’s husband, David Cole Jr., 44, discovered his father’s body on Jan. 8 while his wife was at nursing school. Investigators uncovered text messages between the couple “about the smell and disposal plans” and a Dec. 25 Google search by Brittany Cole that asked, “when someone dies how long does it take for the body to start smelling.” David Cole Jr. was also caught on camera on Jan. 8 when he found the body, and it was discovered that he had ordered a mattress cover from Amazon, prosecutors said.
David Cole Sr.’s body was found decomposing in a shed on the property, wrapped in a mattress cover and a tarp. The victim’s son and daughter-in-law initially moved his body into a sunroom before leaving him in the shed.
According to prosecutors, the motive to kill David Cole Sr. was financial. His son had power of attorney and was the recipient of his father’s monthly Social Security benefits. Authorities said they found that “the couple continued to receive and spend these funds” after David Cole Sr. was dead.
Brittany Cole was sentenced on Feb. 26 to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 16 years after pleading guilty to murder and gross abuse of a corpse. David Cole Jr. was charged with six felonies connected to the events following the death of his father including two counts of tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse, and obstructing justice. He has not yet been arraigned in his case.
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