Amanda Hayes was convicted on a second-degree murder charge for the death of Laura Ackerson.
Ackerson was Hayes' husband's ex-wife.
Investigators said Hayes and her husband Grant killed Ackerson at their Raleigh apartment during a long-running custody dispute over Grant's two oldest children.
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After the murder, the husband and wife reportedly cut up Ackerson's body with a power saw, put it in coolers and drove it in a U-Haul to Richmond, Texas.
Investigators said the couple also tried to dissolve Ackerson's body in acid. When that didn't work they threw her remains in an alligator-infested creek hoping they would never be found.
Hayes was released from her North Carolina prison earlier in August after serving her time for the second-degree murder conviction. She was then taken to Texas where she is now serving a 20-year sentence on a conviction for "tampering with a human corpse."
Grant remains in prison in North Carolina. He was sentenced to life.
LOOK BACK at Laura Ackerson murder case