GUILTY FL - Lisa Spence, 35, Miramar, 7 October 2009

Unaware of the grisly fate that had befallen Lisa Spence, police investigating her disappearance had her cellphone number assigned to a new phone and sent a text message to their main suspect.

"Just wait til I got better," the message read.

It worked, police say: Minutes after they sent the message, Paul Edwards, 44, got into his mother's car and drove to several South Florida locations, one of which would later lead police to Spence's decapitated body.

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Police dogs eventually found a sealed 55-gallon barrel containing the remains of Spence's body in a field on the 20700 block of Northwest 41 Avenue in Miami-Dade. She had been stabbed at least 33 times. Her head was missing — it still has not been found.

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Paul Edwards last saw Lisa Spence at their Miramar home on Oct. 7, 2009, when she announced she was leaving him and began packing her bags, defense lawyers said Friday. A jury didn't buy that argument, convicting Edwards of first-degree murder.

Prosecutors had a different explanation — Edwards fatally stabbed Spence, cut off her head, loaded her body into a barrel and dumped it in a field in Miami Gardens. Then, according to prosecutors, he used her phone to send text messages to Spence's brother and daughter, letting them know she was fine and had decided to come to Jacksonville.

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Paul Edwards, who was convicted Friday in the 2009 murder of his girlfriend Lisa Spence, was sentenced Wednesday to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Broward Circuit Judge Andrew Siegel said the sentence was mandatory, and he handed it down after hearing from just one witness, the victim's daughter.

Cerline Stewart, 23, appeared at the sentencing hearing by telephone, telling the judge how the death of her mother affected her.

"Words cannot express the pain my family has endured since my mother's death," she said.

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