Andreen McDonald’s dreams of success were all coming true before her skeletal remains were found scattered with cow bones in a farmer’s field in San Antonio, Texas, five years ago.
The entrepreneurial mom and wife had vanished into thin air, and her husband, Andre McDonald, a major in the Air Force, refused to talk to the police. With no official cause of death or known enemies, the case hinged on a yellow claw hammer found hidden in a trash can in her garage.
Who was Andreen McDonald?
By 29, Andreen’s hard work and dedication had led her to the life she always imagined. Originally hailing from Jamaica, she fell in love with a handsome U.S. Air Force major 10 years her senior when he visited the island for a funeral. They embarked on a whirlwind romance, getting married, moving to the United States, and welcoming a daughter, Elena, into their family, reported “48 Hours” in “Andreen McDonald: A Millionaire Vanishes.”
While Andre served as a cyber warfare analyst at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, McDonald founded an assisted living business that quickly turned into a multi-million-dollar operation.
The businesswoman prided herself on being punctual and worked out religiously, so when she didn’t show up to the gym or her business on the morning of March 1, 2019, her associates knew something was wrong.
In the days following her disappearance, police discovered small clues that pointed to something chillingly close to home. Her blood was found on her bathroom light switch, and there was a strange burn pile in the sprawling backyard. Within a day, her husband, Andre, was the prime suspect, but bringing him to justice would take four long years.
Accusations of Infidelity
To outsiders, the couple was the picture of happiness, but detectives said they hit a rough patch when Andre discovered his wife had rekindled a romance with her first love back in Jamaica.
In 2018, Andreen got tattoos of the man’s first initial and birthday. The couple narrowly avoided a divorce, but after Andreen covered up her tattoos and ended the affair, friends and family believed they had moved past that episode.
But text messages the night before her disappearance obtained by police painted a different picture, with Andre angrily accusing her of betrayal. He told police he went to a gas station to fill up his tank and cool off, then returned to the home and slept in a different bedroom, and that was the last time he saw her.
The day after her disappearance, undercover cops followed him to a gun shop, where he purchased a handgun and ammunition. Thinking he was going to kill himself, authorities detained him for a mental evaluation and issued a search warrant on the couple’s home, which turned up a smoking gun.
Evidence Leads To An Arrest
Tucked in a corner in the garage, they found a yellow claw hammer and Andre’s blood-stained clothing in a trash can.
A shovel, ax, hatchet, gas cans, and gloves were found in her car, and a torn-up receipt from Lowe’s for the items had been discarded in the trash. When DNA analysis confirmed Andreen’s blood was on the hammer, police swooped in and arrested Andre on a charge of tampering with evidence for ripping up the receipt.
At this point, her body had not yet been found, and the case was still not officially a murder.
Detectives turned to the public for help, blasting the story through news outlets and getting assistance from the Air Force, who deployed a special team to comb hundreds of miles for clues to her whereabouts.
A break in the case finally came on July 11, 2019, when a farmer discovered a human skeleton covered by cow bones in his field. Though Andreen had injuries consistent with being struck by a blunt force object, pathologists could not determine a cause of death due to the degraded state of her remains.
Despite this, McDonald was charged and pleaded not guilty to murder. Just days before his trial was set to begin in April 2021, he made a shocking admission that changed his fate forever.
In what some consider a clever tactical move to avoid a murder charge, he shared details with his family about Andreen’s death, claiming he killed her in self-defense.
At his trial, he stuck to this story, recounting details on the stand of a horrific fight they had the night she died. He claimed she had opened a second business and kept it a secret from him for over a year, which prompted more threats of divorce and a brutal fight.
“She became extremely angry at the thought of us splitting the business and charges into the room to confront me… she comes right up in my face, at that moment she spits in my face. So at that point, I grabbed her, and I think we had a clash of heads, and I think it opened up a cut somewhere on her face,” he said in a video court testimony obtained by “48 Hours.”
Andre noted she was extremely “powerful” and could bench press up to 300 pounds. When she became enraged and started punching him, he threw her to the ground, fearing for his safety, he said.
“That’s when I kicked her twice, and the second kick, I think I heard some type of wheezing,” he testified.
After putting their daughter back to bed, he returned to the bathroom to find Andreen dead.
“I never thought about calling anyone to revive a dead person,” he stated. Instead of calling 911, he dumped his wife’s lifeless body in a field, stripped her naked, and burned her clothing.
What about the Hammer?
Armed with this information, the jury had to decide whether he intentionally murdered her, it was reckless manslaughter or self-defense — but there was still no explanation for the hammer.
Andre explained on the stand that after investigators searched his home, he returned to the field and set her body on fire. After the flames subsided, he attacked her burnt remains with the hammer.
Though he was facing a charge of murder, which carried a life sentence, a jury returned with a lesser verdict in February 2023 of manslaughter after being deadlocked for almost 11 hours. He is now serving 20 years in prison, and his appeal of his conviction was denied in August 2024. Andreen’s mother and sister have custody of their young daughter, Elena.
