Killing the mother of his children was only the start of a North Carolina man's effort to dispatch his ex-girlfriend, investigators said Monday. The rest of it involved a saw, ice chests, a U-Haul trailer and a boat.

Detectives on Sunday discovered pieces of the 27-year-old woman's torso in Oyster Creek, near Richmond, and pulled her head and leg out of the hot, muddy water on Monday.

Grant Ruffin Hayes, 32, a musician from Raleigh, N.C., had killed Laura Jean Ackerson, likely in North Carolina, then hacked and sawed her body to pieces, said Chief Deputy Craig Brady of the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office.

"It's one of the most gruesome scenes I've seen in 30-something years of law enforcement," Brady said.

Hayes and his wife, Amanda Perry Hayes, 39, were arrested Monday in Kinston, N.C., and each charged with murder, according to the Raleigh Police Department. They were booked into Wake County Jail on Monday.

Grant Hayes had purchased several ice chests to transport Ackerson's dismembered body, then put them in a U-Haul trailer. The couple towed it with a pickup truck more than 1,200 miles to Fort Bend County, where Perry Hayes' sister lives, Brady said.

In the Pecan Grove neighborhood near Richmond, Grant Hayes ventured onto Oyster Creek on a small, 10-foot boat, spreading pieces of Ackerson's body into the water last week before driving back to North Carolina, Brady said. Although Perry Hayes was also charged with murder, Brady did not clarify her involvement in the case.

"I have no information about her actual involvement in the homicide or the dismembering aspect," he said. "But I find it highly unlikely that she didn't know what was going on, because the information is she was at the creek when it was dumped."

Officials had not yet "positively identified" the dismembered body as Ackerson's, but believed that it was hers, Brady said.

"From the entire circumstance of the case, I show 99 percent certainty it's going to be that lady," Brady said. "The odds of her missing and her boyfriend, whatever he is, leaving the state and this body turning up within 100 yards of (her) sister's house. It's pretty clear it's going to be her."

It was not clear if the incident had been planned, he said.

"I don't know if it was planned homicide or just tempers flared," Brady said. "I can't imagine someone being that cold and just uncaring that after the murder they took the steps of dismembering this lady in the matter they did and tossing her in a creek."

Child custody battle

Ackerson's friend, Chevon Mathes, reported Ackerson missing when she didn't show up to meet with Grant Hayes to pick up her children on July 13, according to a missing person's report.

Police found Ackerson's Ford Focus in Raleigh last week, Raleigh Police Department spokesman Jim Sughrue said.

Hayes and Ackerson were in an intense custody battle over their children, according to information from the Lenoir County Clerk's Office. Hayes had successfully argued for temporary custody over the children after Ackerson had initiated an effort for full custody. He told the court he was concerned that Ackerson would leave with the children and that he would not see them again.

The custody battle appeared to have inspired Hayes' actions, Brady said.

Hayes has performed as an acoustic pop singer under the name Grant Haze. His website features albums titled Real Love and Love City, and says that at 22, he left his dream of "becoming a doctor to pursue his true calling, music."

The couple's custody battle began with a filing from Ackerson on March 29, 2010, in Lenoir County, N.C.

Their children are currently staying with Hayes' family in North Carolina, Brady said.

Search to continue

The couple stayed with Perry Hayes' sister in Fort Bend County where they dumped Ackerson's dismembered body in the creek, officials said. They then left behind ice chests at the house, located along Oyster Creek, a murky waterway surrounded by tall grass and brush not easily visible from the shore.

Perry Hayes' sister had noticed the ice chests on her property and started to move them when she was alerted by Raleigh detectives that the objects were evidence in an investigation, Brady said. She led officials on Saturday to Oyster Creek. She said Hayes and his wife had been there, Brady said.

Houston Police Department divers and the Richmond Fire Department were searching the creek's muddy waters, using mostly their hands to feel for body parts, Haenel said. They had struggled to make progress over two days and expected to be searching again today, he said.

The search for Ackerson, a brunette with a broad smile, had inspired multiple Facebook pages full of prayers.

Her sister, Erin Anderson, 37, of Ionia, Mich., said Sunday that her family was concerned by news of the body's discovery. "She's my little sister," Anderson said. "I love her."

Reporter Dale Lezon contributed to this report.

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