Southern Indiana man charged with wife's murder after claiming she shot herself

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Charlestown, Indiana, man was charged with murdering his wife after he called police earlier this week to say she had shot herself in the head.

It happened Aug. 4, according to court documents. That's when officers with the Clark County Sheriff's Office and the Charlestown Police Department responded to a home in the 10400 block of Charlestown New Market Road in Charlestown on reports that his wife had shot herself.

The caller — identified as Stephen Gower — said Christina Gower used a gun to end her life.

Despite initially telling officers she had shot herself, police said he asked police to "take me to jail" and "shoot me" while at the scene. Stephen Gower told investigators the gun used was a short barrel AR-style rifle, which was located by responding officers.

Christina Gower's body was found inside the home "lying on the floor face up with significant blood pooling around the head." Police said she was half inside the master bedroom and half inside the hallway that connected to the kitchen/living room area.

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."

Stephen Gower did admit to "holding his wife's wrist while they were on the kitchen floor to hold her down but denied any physical physical altercation beyond that."

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."

That gun was returned to the bedroom before he retrieved the rifle later in the evening. He said he also placed the rifle to his head as well, but "Christina was crawling around the residence due to intoxication."

Stephen Gower told officers he had asked to be arrested 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 several feet away or more and concluded that "Christina could not have self inflicted a gunshot wound to herself from that distance."

Stephen Gower remains jailed at the Clark County Jail in Jeffersonville. He is scheduled in court Aug. 11.

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Southern Indiana man charged with wife's murder after claiming she shot herself