Investigators charged Tammy Rena Stroud Dixon’s husband with her murder on Wednesday after questioning him.

Loggers found the 37-year-old woman’s remains near the Uwharrie National Forrest in southwest Randolph County on April 18.

Christopher Andrew “Andy” Dixon Sr. is being held with no bond in the Davidson County Jail on a first-degree murder charge. Randolph County authorities also have charged him with indecent mistreatment of a dead body.

Dixon grew up in China Grove, and a number of her relatives still live there.

Tammy Dixon’s step-mother, PeggyStroud who lives on Cedar Ridge Lane with Dixon’s father, Austin, said the couple were married for 10 years and that Andy Stroud already has remarried.

A pathologist pinpointed Tammy Dixon’s time of death to July 10, 1999, her step-mother Peggy Stroud said this morning.

But investigators say they didn’t know she had disappeared until April 21. They did not say who reported her missing.

To add to the confusion, someone filed separation papers in October that were supposedly signed by Tammy Dixon and notarized in Guilford County.

Peggy Stroud says the family believes Andy Dixon had another woman pose as Tammy Dixon to sign the divorce papers.

“I don’t think it was his wife because she was totally in the dark about this,” Stroud said.

Dixon’s body had been stripped, and the Medical Examiner had to use dental records to identify her.

“They have not told us the cause of death yet, but eventually they will be able to find out,” she said.

After they married, they lived first in West Virginia and then Wilmington for several years. The couple moved to a house at 1529 Farmer Road in Denton three years ago.

“She didn’t keep in touch with us as much as she probably should have,” Peggy Stroud said. That’s one reason she could disappear for so long before investigators were notified in April.

“Her brother in Lexington called the house, and he (Andy Dixon) told him she had just took off,” Stroud said.

Stroud said the family has reason to believe Andy Dixon was abusing his wife for years.

“She told her sister in Wilmington about some things that happened, and I am sure the emergency room in Wilmington has some records,” Stroud said. Randolph County Sheriff Litchard Hurley confirmed that the couple had a history of domestic violence.

Tammy Dixon attended China Grove Junior High and South Rowan High School, her father, Austin Stroud, said.

Then he asked his wife to talk about his daughter for him.

Peggy Stroud said the Dixons have a 7-year-old son who is staying with Andy Dixon’s parents in Wilmington.

Since the identification of the body, Stroud said the family is remembering warning signs about the Dixons’ relationship.

“She would call and say they were coming to visit and then they didn’t come. Now we think maybe he wouldn’t let her.

“He is a big rough-looking guy, and she was a small girl,” Peggy Stroud said.

“This is the most bizarre thing. We were hoping before the positive identification, we were hoping that it is wasn’t her.

“Maybe she was in a situation she couldn’t get out of. It is really hard, if we would have been in touch more, maybe we could of helped her in some way.”