Bodies exhumed near Centralia Road

The murder suspect led them to the makeshift gravesite Friday night.

Twenty hours later sheriff's deputies and forensic specialists were still at the scene digging into the sand while preserving all of the evidence they could find.

Michael McAdams, 47, shot and killed his estranged wife and boyfriend Oct. 17 and buried them in a remote neighborhood near Centralia Road in Weeki Wachee, according to the Pasco Sheriff's Office.

Authorities exhumed the bodies of Lynda McAdams, 46, and William "Ryan" Andrews, 36, on Saturday.

Michael McAdams confessed to the crimes and told authorities he had confronted the couple at the home he and his wife once shared in Dade City, deputies said.

Pasco Sheriff Bob White said during a media conference Friday that McAdams probably became familiar with Weeki Wachee while pursuing his hobby of collecting snakes.

The cordoned area was roughly twice the size of a soccer field.

A dozen or so forensics specialists were digging through the dirt and collecting evidence all morning and afternoon. A medical examiner's van was parked a few yards from where the bodies were thought to be buried.

The thick brush blocked the view of the media and curious neighbors who had walked toward the yellow tape for a closer look.

No digging equipment was used aside from a few shovels.

"We're doing it all by hand," said Lt. John Corbin of the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, who was at the scene late Saturday afternoon. "It's very meticulous and tedious work."

The burial site was located a few hundred yards from the corner of Hurricane Drive and Peaceful Avenue and a few miles east of U.S. 19.

"We live in a remote area so we don't have to be around the crime, the drugs and the murdering," said Mary White, who realized a crime scene was just around the corner from her house after seeing news vans parked down her street Saturday afternoon.

Her daughter often rides her horse along the trails behind the row of homes along Hurricane Drive.

"I don't like it at all," White said. "It's very scary."

Randy Callahan lives across the street from White. He has spent most of his adult life living in the neighborhood and once rented a single-wide trailer that was located on the property where the bodies were found, he said. He currently lives two lots down the street.

More houses have been built around the area during the past few years, which means more people, less seclusion and more of a law enforcement presence in the neighborhood, he said.

Even still, it is a popular place for visitors to come and ride their all-terrain vehicles.

"I got a 5-year-old son and I let him run his four-wheeler in the backyard," Callahan said. "There are a lot of kids who ride back there."

Sheriff White said Friday that McAdams might have killed the couple out of jealousy.

Lynda McAdams and Andrews, 37, of New Port Richey, knew each other through work and had been dating for a few weeks, deputies said.

Michael McAdams soon became the prime suspect. He and his wife were planning a divorce after 24 years of marriage and he had moved out of their house on Palomina Drive in Dade City to a house in Hernando County, according to the sheriff's office.

McAdams confessed because he could no longer carry the weight of his guilt, the sheriff said.