A medical examiner ruled her death a homicide several months later
A Georgia man has been sentenced to life in prison for the 2019 murder of a woman he briefly met on a dating app, The People reported.
Fabiola Thomas, 39, was discovered in a bathtub by her roommate in June 2019 in her Roswell, Ga., apartment, according to reports from WSB-TV, 11 Alive, and FOX 5 Atlanta.
Antonio Wilson, then 38, was arrested and charged with her murder months later, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and 11 Alive, citing Roswell Police.
The investigation began on June 8, 2019, when police received a frantic phone call from Ms Thomas’ roommate, who reported finding her in the bathtub and feared “something bad had happened to her,” according to FOX 5 Atlanta and 11 Alive.
Police found Ms Thomas unresponsive at the scene, and she was later pronounced dead at the hospital, as per FOX 5 Atlanta.
A medical examiner ruled her death a homicide several months later, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.
During the investigation, authorities discovered that Ms Thomas and Wilson had met on a dating app shortly before the murder, as reported by WSB-TV.
“Ms. Thomas did everything that you would think you should do,” Assistant District Attorney Abigail Potter told WSB-TV. “She told her friends where she was going. She would only meet him in public places.”
Prosecutors stated that when Ms Thomas expressed her desire to end the relationship, Wilson could not handle the rejection, according to WSB-TV.
In a text message sent before her death, Thomas asked Wilson to “stop claiming” her, authorities said.
“Keep your ring, I’m not your woman, never was, stop claiming me because I never claimed u,” Ms Thomas wrote in a text, according to WSB-TV, citing prosecutors.
Senior Assistant District Attorney Nalda Charles told the outlet, that on the day she died, she ‘unfriended’ Wilson. It remains unclear which dating app they were using to communicate.
Wilson was arrested on October 25, 2019, after Ms Thomas’ death was ruled a homicide. Five years later, following his trial, a jury took only 30 minutes to find him guilty, according to WSB-TV.
On Tuesday, July 23, a judge sentenced Wilson to life in prison without the possibility of parole for malice murder, as reported by WSB-TV from a Fulton County court.