Henry Fitchett_Edward Fitchett.jpg

(From left) Henry Fitchett, Edward Fitchett

(Marion County Sheriff's Office)

An 87-year-old man announced as missing earlier this week died more than a year ago but his body was hidden by his son, prosecutors allege.

Edward Fitchett, 57, was arrested Thursday after Marion County detectives found the body of Henry Conley Fitchett Jr. inside a freezer at the father's home in Aurora, according to the son's wife, Rose Fitchett.

During a brief interview Friday with The Oregonian/OregonLive, Fitchett said the father, typically called by his middle name Conley, at some point lived with her and her husband, then left.

But Fitchett said she didn't know he was dead until this week. She described her father-in-law as a "good, honest man" who valued his children.

Fitchett said police have told her few details since her husband's arrest. She said she didn't have much to say about her husband.

"I loved him for 36 years, and things just didn't go so well in our marriage," she said.

On Monday, the Marion County Sheriff's Office sought the public's help in finding the elder Fitchett, saying he had been missing since September and his family believed he moved to the Estacada area with a girlfriend.

The son is accused of second-degree abuse of a corpse for allegedly moving his father's body in December 2015, court documents show. He is also accused of first-degree theft for allegedly stealing money from his father between January 2016 and January 2017.

The Sheriff's Office has declined to release more information about the case.

A probable cause affidavit written by an investigator has been heavily redacted but says the case has reliable eyewitnesses, physical evidence connecting Edward Fitchett to the crimes, and he either admitted to his role in the case or gave obvious lies.

Fitchett told KOIN earlier this week that he was in charge of his father's money. He claimed his father refused to tell him where he was going or who his girlfriend was, but the son assumed from her license plate frame that read "Estacada" that they were heading there.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey