Top inset: Laurie Diane Potter (San Diego County Sheriff’s Office). Bottom inset: Jack Dennis Potter; and background: dumpster where Laurie Potter’s legs were found (KFMB).
After discarding his wife’s legs in a dumpster, a California man had the nerve to open credit cards in her name, sell their home, and “pocket all profits” amid his obsession with a woman he met at a strip club. Justice came for Jack Dennis Potter, 72, on Friday in a courtroom in San Diego County after he had pleaded guilty back in February to second-degree murder for killing his spouse, Laurie Diane Potter, 54. He was sentenced on Friday to 15-years-to-life in prison. Now 72, he’ll be well into his 80s even if he serves the shortest possible version of this punishment.
The case long went unsolved. A maintenance worker at an apartment complex in the community of Rancho San Diego found a pair of legs in the dumpster way back on Oct. 5, 2003. Authorities determined these belonged to a woman, but they had no clue as to her identity. That changed after cold case investigators picked up the case again in June 2020 and used new technology to analyze her DNA to track down relatives. It turned out that Laurie Potter had never been reported missing. Jack Potter was the only person all these years who knew what happened to Laurie, head investigator Detective Troy DuGal said when authorities broke the case in 2021: “Nobody knew except for one guy.”
Defendant Potter harbored an obsession with a woman he met in a strip club, according to authorities. Incidentally, she was also named Laurie.
Jack Potter blew loads of cash in this time period, opening credit accounts, buying a pickup truck, a ski boat, and gifting his new girlfriend a Hummer SUV. He even got her an apartment and a credit card with a $30,000 limit. He financially took advantage of his wife’s death and even successfully filed for divorce.
“In the years that followed, Potter maintained the deception, opening credit cards in Laurie’s name and fraudulently filing Family Court documents claiming he had contacted Laurie about the proceedings — years after she had been murdered,” prosecutors wrote. “He utilized the Family Court to sell their family home in Temecula and pocket all profits. ”
