Miss. woman surrenders in hot-oil death

updated 6:51 p.m. ET Aug. 10, 2006

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. - A woman accused of killing her husband by pouring hot cooking oil on him turned herself in to authorities Thursday after more than a week on the run.

Edna Mae Sanders, 45, faces a murder charge and was the focus of an intense search by authorities, including the FBI.

Police believe Sanders heated about two quarts of household cooking oil to a simmer, then poured it over Sherman Sanders' head, face, chest and arms while he slept July 28. Police say she then fled the couple's home in Diamondhead, in southern Mississippi, with her two children from a previous marriage.

Sherman Sanders, 53, suffered third-degree burns over more than half his body. The Navy veteran clung to life for a week before dying Aug. 4 in the burn center of an Alabama hospital.

Edna Sanders surrendered at the sheriff's department in Hancock County early Thursday, officials said. They said Sanders was being held in the county jail on $1 million bond, and that her children were in their father's custody.

Sanders' older brother, Lawrence Miller, told police she knocked on his door Wednesday night in Gonzales, La., carrying a suitcase and crying. He told investigators he persuaded her to turn herself in.

Police had not been able to find a motive, but investigators have said that Sherman Sanders, who had been married to Edna for about a year, recently considered getting a divorce.

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