Gilmer, TX — An Upshur County sheriff’s investigator testified Tuesday that the defendant in a murder trial refused to let law enforcement officers search her property after she reported a vehicle fire in which her husband’s body was discovered.

Investigator Chris McCauley testified in 115th District Court that after obtaining a search warrant Aug. 30, 2011, to enter the premises of Gordon and Sharon Maxwell in Ore City, investigators found a macabre scene — sheets missing from a bed, cleaning supplies strewn through the kitchen and blood splattered across the walls and ceiling of the couple’s bedroom.

Sharon Maxwell would have been the sole beneficiary of a $175,000 life insurance policy on her 10th husband, whom she had married just months before his death. Her murder trial began Tuesday.

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