Stephen Gower, Charlestown, Indiana man shoots & kills wife, Christina after learning of affair, tells cops she shot herself. Autopsy reveals gun fired from more than three feet away.
A Clark County, Indiana man has been charged with his wife’s murder after originally telling cops she had committed suicide after a night of drinking and arguing. It turned out the husband shot dead his wife after learning of an alleged affair she was having.
It all went down on August 4th when Stephen Gower, 53, called police to the couple’s Charlestown, southern Indiana home to report that his wife, Christina Gower had shot herself dead.
Indiana husband shoots wife dead after learning of alleged affair
Christina Gower’s body was found inside the home ‘lying on the floor face up with significant blood pooling around the head,’ WHAS11 reported.
She had been shot in the head, but a detective at the scene ‘did not observe visible burns or stippling to Christina’s head or face that would be consistent with a close shot or contact shot to the head.’
As officers began questioning Stephen Gower, he told them that on the morning of Aug. 3, he had ‘found messages on Christina’s phone indicating that she was talking to other men and indicated she was having an affair.’
Stephen Gower also told detectives that he and his wife ‘had been consuming alcohol throughout the evening leading up to the early morning shootings.’ He also described a ‘series of escalating events, including verbal arguments and physical actions, such as breaking a chair and a light fixture in the spare bedroom.’
During the arguments that led up to the fatal shooting, Stephen Gower said he got a handgun from the bedroom and placed it next to his head and said he wanted to kill himself and said ‘he had hoped his wife would pull the trigger,’ before putting the weapon away.
The husband at some point then asked officers to arrest him because he ‘he believed it would be easier to go to jail than to explain the incident to his children and his wife’s family.’
A medical examiner performed an autopsy and determined the gunshot appeared to have been from at least 3 feet away or more and concluded that ‘Christina could not have self-inflicted a gunshot wound to herself from that distance.’
Stephen Gower is now charged with his wife’s murder and remains jailed at the Clark County Jail in Jeffersonville. He is scheduled to appear in court on Monday, Aug. 11.
