The ex-husband of a woman who disappeared in 2016 and whose remains were found in Conecuh National Forest in 2020 has been acquitted of her murder.

Thomas Whitehurst, 58, of Wetumpka, was found not guilty by an Elmore County jury Friday of the murder of 53-year-old Kimberly ‘”Starr” Mulder, WSFA reported Monday.

Whitehurst’s verdict was not yet in court records as of late Monday night.

Whitehurst was charged with murdering Mulder, who was last seen July 11, 2016, when she was believed to have been picked up by someone at her residence that day and supposedly en route to Birmingham but was never seen again, according to authorities.

Mulder’s remains were found in south Alabama’s Conecuh National Forest in March 2020 by forest rangers doing a controlled burn.

Whitehurst was fingered as a suspect after investigators said they found Mulder’s blood in a vehicle belonging to Whitehurst and in the garage of the Redland Road home.

The Wetumpka man and Mulder lived together off and on, and were living in the Wildwood subdivision in Elmore County when Mulder disappeared.