She Was Murdered, Her Legs Thrown in Dumpster — and Husband Went on Shopping Spree with Credit Cards in Her Name

• When Laurie Diane Potter, 54, of Temecula, Calif., disappeared without a trace in 2003, her husband, Jack Potter, began opening credit cards in her name and spending lavishly
• Potter became enamored with a woman he met at a strip club and gave her extravagant gifts including a Hummer and a credit card with a $30,000 limit
• Laurie Potter was never reported missing, the San Diego Sheriff’s Office said

A California man convicted of discarding his murdered wife’s severed legs in a dumpster before opening credit cards in her name and spending lavishly on a boat and a Hummer SUV for his new girlfriend he met at a strip club has learned his fate.

On Friday, May 2, Jack Potter, 72, was sentenced to 15 years-to-life in state prison for the 2003 murder of his wife, Laurie Diane Potter, 54, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan said in a statement.

“This was a brutal, calculated murder that shattered the lives of Laurie’s loved ones, who then had to endure nearly 20 years of unanswered questions and unimaginable grief,” DA Stephan said.

The gruesome crime came to the attention of law enforcement on Oct. 5, 2003, when a maintenance worker at the Country Hills Apartment complex in Rancho San Diego found a pair of severed human legs in a dumpster, PEOPLE previously reported.

The Medical Examiner’s Office and the San Diego Sheriff’s Office Homicide Unit “exhausted all traditional avenues of identifying the woman without success,” the sheriff’s office said in a release in 2021.

The case went cold until 2020, when the San Diego County Sheriff’s Homicide Cold Case Team used investigative genetic genealogy for the first time to try to identify the victim, Stephan said.

Using DNA from the legs, the Cold Case Team identified the woman’s adult son, the sheriff’s office said in the release. Through DNA, the victim was positively identified as Laurie Diane Potter and the Cold Case Team began an intensive investigation into Laurie’s life, the sheriff’s office said.

Investigators learned that in 2003, Laurie was a resident of Temecula, married to Jack Dennis Potter, and had never been reported missing, the sheriff’s office said. “The investigation revealed substantial and convincing evidence that Jack murdered Laurie,” it said.

Potter was arrested in 2021 in connection with his wife’s death. In February 2025, a month before his trial was set to begin, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and confessed to smothering his wife to death.

Details of the lavish life Potter led after his wife’s legs were found came to light during grand jury proceedings in August 2024.

Jurors heard how Potter “became obsessed in 2003 with a woman he met at a strip club—who shared the same first name as his wife,” Stephan said.

Within weeks of Laurie’s legs being discovered, Potter opened multiple credit accounts and “made extravagant purchases, including a new pick-up truck, a Hummer SUV, and a ski boat,” Stephan said.

He gave the Hummer and boat to his new girlfriend, rented her an apartment in Corona Hills, and provided her with a credit card carrying a $30,000 limit. 

Over the years, Potter continued opening credit cards in Laurie’s name and fraudulently filing Family Court documents claiming he had contacted his wife about the proceedings—years after she had been murdered, Stephan said.

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He went to Family Court to sell the family home in Temecula “and pocket all profits,” Stephan said.

“This case is a stark reminder that the pursuit of justice never stops,” said DA Stephan. “And neither does the grief of those who lose someone to violence. Today, we honor Laurie’s memory and stand with her family in their long-awaited moment of justice.”