Charles Trumble Portage Indiana man charged with the murder of his 91 year old mother, Dixie Trumble who he claimed killing her to spare her from really bad stuff.
It could only get worse had she remained alive …
An Indiana man has told authorities he bludgeoned his 91 year old mother to death with a sledgehammer in order to protect her ‘from really bad stuff…’ that was about to happen.
Charles Henry Trumble, 59, upon his arrest was charged with the murder of Dixie L. Trumble, who was found lifeless with ‘obvious head trauma’ late Sunday in the Portage home she shared with her son, police said.
Trumble had called 911 to report having killed his mother, who was pronounced dead at the scene. A motive in the slaying is unclear, but Trumble told a dispatcher he used a sledgehammer to take his mother’s life so she wouldn’t find out about his dark past, according to court documents obtained by the Times of Northwest Indiana.
‘He stated that he was in the living room and his mother was in the same room,’ charging documents state. ‘He further stated that he killed her because he is about to be exposed for committing awful crimes.’
Officers later found the elderly woman on her back in the living room, as her son, Charles Trumble was lying next to her with a cellphone in his hand, cops said.
Investigators told of finding a short-handled sledgehammer near Dixie Trumble’s body.
‘My mom was a distinguished woman,’ Trumble is alleged to have said as a cop performed CPR on Dixie Trumble. ‘I am about to be in trouble for some really bad stuff, and I killed her so she wouldn’t be exposed to it.’
It’s unclear what crimes Trumble feared being accountable for leading up to his mother’s bludgeoning that the man was referencing, police said.
Portage Police Chief Mike Candiano said his department has been in touch with other local jurisdictions, with Chief Candianao saying he didn’t know what Trumble was referring to in his remarks to police.
‘We weren’t investigating him for anything else and we haven’t uncovered any other local investigations to this point,’ Candiano told via the ChicagoTribune. ‘We also didn’t have any history with him or at the residence. We’re continuing to look into it but as of now, we don’t know what he was referring to.’
Portage police in a statement Monday described the slaying as an ‘isolated incident’ between two relatives.
‘The Portage Police Department extends its condolences to the surviving members of the Trumble family,’ the statement read.
Dixie Trumble died from blood loss due to blunt force trauma, according to a preliminary autopsy obtained by the Times of Northwest Indiana.
Charles Trumble, who remains held without bail at the Porter County Jail, is expected to make his initial court appearance Friday.
