Case Dismissed Against Man Charged In Wife's Hot Tub Death 22 Years Ago In Round Rock

ROUND ROCK, TX — The Williamson County District Attorney's Office has dismissed a murder charge against a man accused more than 20 years ago of killing in wife in a hot tub, according to a published report.

William Foster was indicted in 2015 after former DA Jana Duty said the man's wife, Donna Foster, 49, had suspicious injuries consistent with being held underwater in a hot tub at their Wilderness Way home, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

But suddenly, the case against Foster has been dismissed. Duty's successor, Shawn Dick, said in his dismissal order that "due to the antiquity of the case and the unavailability of witnesses and evidence, there is presently insufficient evidence to prosecute," the newspaper reported.

An attorney for Foster told the newspaper a medical examiner who performed the initial autopsy found no evidence of murder, and there were no witnesses to her death. Foster has since moved to Florida and had been free on bond since being charged, the newspaper reported.

The Statesman noted the Williamson County DA at the woman's hot tub death, Ken Anderson, told the newspaper in 1996 his office had reviewed the available evidence before it was deemed insufficient to bring charges.

Duty—who at one point was suspended for 18 months for professional misconduct related to a murder case—wasn't swayed by her successor's decision not to pursue charges against Foster. She told the Statesman that all the key witnesses were still alive and the victim was seeking a divorce at the time of her death.

"Bill had a lot to gain with Donna's death," Duty told a Statesman reported on Wednesday. "To the tune of $400,000 in life insurance. she noted the woman was the “bread winner in the family, as Bill’s home building business was tanking.”

>>> Read the full story at Austin American-Statesman

William Foster booking photo via Williamson County Jail records