Ben Lightsey’s own words provide a chilling narrative for murder.

Eleven months have passed since Melissa Lightsey was murdered by her husband. In February, Lightsey pleaded guilty to murder and is currently serving a 25 year sentence in a state penitentiary. As part of his plea agreement, Lightsey went on the record to clarify the facts of his wife’s murder case.

According to Lightsey, he and his wife were madly in love. The couple was happily married with two children - Sonny and Zane. The family relied on the Lord and found support for one another through their faith.

“We loved each other very much. We told each other…all the time,” said Lightsey. “There was never a day that went by that we didn’t kiss each other, we didn’t hug each other, we didn’t love each other.”

Lightsey recalls holding hands and kissing his wife in the hours leading up to her murder.
Lightsey had no idea that he would lose control and murder the woman he loved by the end of the night.

Lightsey told detectives how comforting his wife was and how she would always tell him that no matter what happened, they would always have each other. Lightsey had no reason to believe otherwise. However, Lightsey’s rage would eventually separate the “seemingly perfect couple” forever.

“There was never an argument,” said Lightsey. “We never went to bed unhappy.”

That remained so until the night of November 9, 2008. The couple argued at a wedding reception after Lightsey discovered his wife snorting cocaine in a bathroom stall.

When Lightsey saw his wife snorting cocaine he felt “a feeling of betrayal and a feeling of a hot sizzling, I don’t even know how to explain it, just a hot fire rush up my back up through my neck up over my head and just overwhelmingly I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”

Lightsey pulled his spouse out of the restroom stall by grabbing her by her hair. An intoxicated Lightsey then got behind the wheel of his 2008 Ford pick-up truck.

“I wish to God to this day that I had got a DUI or I had hit a light pole [or] run off the bridge,” said Lightsey. “I wish something would have happened to keep me from driving home that night.”

When the couple arrived home, Lightsey pulled the victim from his truck onto the ground. “I got on top of her and then I hit her. I couldn’t control myself, my heart was overflowing with rage. When I was swinging, it was not me. It’s not the Ben I’ve ever known. It’s not the Ben that my wife knew,” said Lightsey. “I grabbed her by her throat and I was shaking her head. I was trying to pull my hands away and I couldn’t.”

Lightsey took his wife to Vilano Beach to dispose of her body.

“I held her for probably 10 or 12 minutes and talked to her and just told her goodbye and told her I loved her and just held on to her,” said Lightsey. “I told her I know she’s in heaven and I know her spirit’s already left, but I wanted to hold on to her anyway.”

Lightsey said that for the next 25 years of his life in prison, his two children will be his reason to stay alive and suffer.

“[I] can’t die because of my children. Somebody’s got to stay behind and tell them exactly how beautiful and how loving their mother was,” said Lightsey.

Detectives said Lightsey’s heartfelt confession closed all of the remaining questions in the case. In 24 years and nine months, Lightsey will be a free man. He says the night of November 9, 2008 will haunt him for years to come.

“I feel like I don’t even have any more tears left, I’ve cried so much. You sit in that jail cell and I got a hundred different things running through my head,” said Lightsey. “It’s an emotional rollercoaster. I’ve been riding it since it happened.”

There were attempts made to contact both families to verify the information given in Lightsey’s confession, the families were either unreachable or declined to comment.