(Court TV) -

A North Carolina woman admitted Tuesday to killing her husband, whose dismembered remains were found scattered along the Blue Ridge Parkway in 2004.

Gail Gash pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder for killing Donald Larry Gash, just before jury selection was to begin in her murder trial.

The plea deal with Henderson County prosecutors spared the 52-year-old defendant a possible life sentence on one count of first-degree murder. She now faces a maximum of 40 years in prison.

Police found Donald Gash's dismembered limbs along the Buscombe section of the Blue Ridge Parkway in March 2004. They also found his torso stashed in a plastic storage container on the Gashes' Hendersonville property.

A preliminary autopsy determined that Gash, the fire chief of the Etowah-Horse Shoe Volunteer Fire Department, had died from blunt trauma to the head.

Inside the home, the living room walls and furniture were spattered with blood and tissue. Authorities also found a bloody mop and other signs of an attempted clean-up.

Four days later, on March 30, 2004, Gail Gash was found lying in a crawl space and wrapped in a blanket under a neighbor's shed, less than a mile from her home.

Prosecutors said marital problems and financial straits led Gail Gash to kill her husband, who was supposedly carrying on another relationship in plain view of his wife.

At the time of her husband's death, Gail Gash was attempting to pay restitution to a former co-worker stemming from fraud and forgery convictions. She had recently lost her job at the local social services department for alleged food stamp fraud.

In court documents, investigators said the defendant was a "troubled" woman who spent hours surfing Web sites on dental implants, cosmetic surgery, female sexual dysfunction and dating advice.

"By all accounts, Gail Gash was unhappy in her life and marriage," Henderson County Det. Lt. Walt Harper wrote in a search warrant application. "In the demise of her husband, she stood to gain freedom from the relationship and financial gain from life insurance money."

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