Husband kills wife with shotgun and tries staging it as a suicide, Oklahoma cops say

A man went to his neighbor’s home and said his wife had shot herself, Oklahoma police said.

But the crime scene, according to investigators, painted a different picture.

Now, the 31-year-old husband is charged with first-degree murder following the Sept. 13 death of his wife in a Tecumseh home, investigators revealed in an affidavit.

“Call somebody, I need help, my wife just shot herself,” the husband told his neighbor, who alerted police, according to the court documents.

When officers entered the home, they found the man giving chest compressions to his wife, who officers said was shot in the head. As she lay on the kitchen floor, a shotgun was discovered beside her, police said.

The wife was pronounced dead about a half hour after officers were called to the home, police said.

Investigators said it was initially difficult to see the damage to the wife’s gunshot wound because her husband had filled it with petroleum jelly.

As officers began investigating the death, they said the man’s story was not lining up.

First, he told an officer he and his wife were fighting over a gun when it went off and shot her, police said. He told a different officer he walked into a room and witnessed his wife shoot herself, according to the documents.

The investigation revealed the couple had been “fighting verbally ... because of some family issues involving the children being removed from the home by grandparents,” police said in the affidavit.

The father of the victim said the husband’s “emotions were high” the night of the killing, according to the court documents.

Police said the father had been at the couple’s home that night and thought his son-in-law had cooled off, so he went to pick up dinner. When the father returned, he saw first responders at the home.

Officers also found the victim’s journal, which included entries outlining how she did not feel safe and considered leaving her husband, court documents show.

The husband was taken to the Pottawatomie County Public Safety Center and jailed on a murder charge, police said.

Tecumseh is about a 40-mile drive southeast from Oklahoma City.

This story was originally published September 17, 2024 at 11:58 AM with the headline "Husband kills wife with shotgun and tries staging it as a suicide, Oklahoma cops say."