Man Pleads Guilty To Killing Wife Found In Rancho San Diego Dumpster

SAN DIEGO, CA — The husband of a woman who was unidentified for nearly two decades after her legs were discovered inside a trash bin in Rancho San Diego pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and faces a possible life prison term when he is sentenced in May.

Jack Dennis Potter, 72, was arrested in 2021 in connection with the death of 54-year-old Laurie Diane Potter, whose remains were found Oct. 5, 2003, in a trash bin in the 1600 block of Hilton Head Court.

Potter pleaded guilty Friday and is expected to be sentenced in May to 15 years to life in state prison. He remains in county jail without bail.

Genetic genealogy testing, the same technology used to capture the Golden State Killer, aided investigators in identifying Laurie Potter, according to sheriff's officials, who said it was the first time in the San Diego region in which the technology was used to identify a homicide victim.

At a 2021 news conference announcing her husband's arrest, Troy DuGal, a detective with the sheriff's Cold Case Homicide unit, said Laurie's family, though unaware of her whereabouts, believed she was still alive.

— City News Service