Indiana Man Accused of Killing Wife with a Hammer: ‘We Weren't Arguing, I Just Lost It’

An Indiana man is accused of killing his wife with a hammer.

Terry Ogle, 79, is facing one count of murder in the death of his wife Mary, 76.

Officers were called to the couple’s Indianapolis home around 1 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 17 after Ogle called 911 to report he “’bludgeoned’ his wife ‘to death,’” according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by PEOPLE.

When a 911 operator asked Ogle, a former middle school principal, the nature of the call, he allegedly responded: “The nature of the emergency is that there’s been some violence.”

“She’s deceased,” he told a dispatcher. “Yeah, she’s been down for a while,” he said.

The dispatcher then asked if he needed instructions on how to do CPR.

“It’s too late,” Ogle allegedly said.

When asked by the dispatcher what he and his wife, a former teacher, were arguing about, he allegedly responded: “It’s a long story, I’ve been under depression for a while. So, we weren’t arguing I just lost it. I think she’s having an affair. So, I lost it.”

When officers arrived, they found Mary lying on her back in a rear bedroom “suffering from what appeared to be blunt force trauma to the head,” the affidavit states.

The lower half of her body was covered with a blanket.

“There was suspected blood on the pillow next to her head,” states the affidavit. “A reclining chair in the living room had a large amount of blood on the arm rests as well as on the wall behind the recliner. There was suspected blood in multiple other areas of the home including the hall, on the stairs to the basement, and the kitchen sink.”

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Officers transported Ogle to the hospital for a self-inflicted laceration to his wrist and high-blood pressure.

Inside the home, officers found two hammers, clothing, a towel, four knives, and cuttings from the carpet and recliner.

Neighbor Robert Smith told WTHR that the couple “would walk the entire neighborhood holding hands, talking to each other. They would stop and talk to me once in a while. They were nice people,” Smith said. “I just didn’t think anything like this would happen around here.”

Ogle is scheduled to appear in court on March 11. It’s unclear if he has entered a plea. His attorney declined to comment on the pending litigation.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.