Bob McCaffrey, 47, was convicted of obstruction of Justice last week after police say he forged a farewell letter after his wife's disappearance in 2012
A South Carolina husband whose wife disappeared nearly seven years ago has been jailed after he was found guilty of forging a farewell letter to mislead police.
Bob McCaffrey, 47, was convicted of obstruction of Justice last week, having told investigators in 2012 that he'd returned home from visiting his mistress and found a note from his wife, Gayle, saying she'd left him for another man.
The jury deliberated for just 15 minutes to convict McCaffrey of the obstruction charge, and on Thursday a Charleston County Judge issued him the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
McCaffrey had previously been jailed in 2018 accused of her murder, but the charge was dismissed by the court after two weeks, citing insufficient evidence.
Gayle's body has never been found. She was officially declared dead in 2018.
'Next to losing you, everything else is unimportant,' Gayle McCaffrey (above) wrote to Bob just 10 days before she went missing. Bob tried to claim it was her that left him, when she vanished
The jury deliberated for just 15 minutes to convict McCaffrey of the obstruction charge. He was lead away in handcuffs after a judge sentenced him to 10 years behind bars
'We are so pleased and so grateful the jury came back with a guilty verdict,' Debbie Pearson, Gayle's sister, said outside the courtroom.
'We've waited so long for this,' added Gayle's other sister, Helen Banach, to ABC4. 'Just to know he's not on the street anymore is such a joy.'
In March 2012, the McCaffrey's hit a roadblock in their 14-year-marriage when Gayle, then 36, discovered text messages from another woman in her husband's phone.
Though difficult news for Gayle to stomach, her family and friends say she was determined to make the marriage work for the sake of her children, then 10 and 4.
'Next to losing you, everything else is unimportant,' wrote Gayle in a separate letter to Bob, dated March 7.
However, when her husband called police 10-days-later on St. Patrick's day to report her missing, Bob insisted it was Gayle who'd walked away from their marriage and their two children, claiming she'd left a note to explain why.
He'd been visiting his mistress in North Caroline, Bob told police, when he returned home to find an angry letter from Gayle, telling him she had run off with another man.
Bob McCaffrey (seen left in 2012) says he returned home on March 17, 2012 to find a note from his wife Gayle (right) telling him she was leaving him for another man
The father-of-two also say she'd left behind her wedding ring and keys. His children were still asleep in their bed at the home in West Ashley (pictured)
Seven years on from her disappearance, and without a single sighting of Gayle since, prosecutors used the letter as a key piece of evidence to show Bob as an obstructing witness in their search for his wife.
Over the four day trial, jurors heard from a number of witinesses who testified that Gayle was working tirelessly to hold her marriage together, not hatching a hasty
