Husband Claims Wife Stabbed 50 Times, Bitten on Face Committed Suicide: Police

News By TooFab Staff |
La Crosse County Jail

She was found holding a knife ... but police, who detailed her brutal injuries, said they were "not consistent with the self-inflicted injury" and charged the husband with murder.

A Wisconsin man has been charged with his wife's grisly murder -- a murder he initially claimed was suicide.

Zachary Fritz, 36, was arrested and charged with first-degree intentional homicide after police were called to his house in the early morning hours of June 10 this week.

During a bond hearing on Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Burdick explained the bizarre circumstances of the case. Per Burdick, via WXOW, Fritz was found at the home covered in blood. According to a criminal complaint, the husband was also "screaming" and stating "she's upstairs" when officers arrived at the scene.

The body of the man's wife was then discovered in the primary bedroom, with Fritz allegedly telling police he woke up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and found her dead. The woman was reportedly holding onto a kitchen knife in her left hand; Fritz allegedly said his wife killed herself.

The victim's body and the crime scene, however, told a different story.

An autopsy determined she had been stabbed more than 50 times, including on her back and hamstring. Three bite wounds were also found on her face and there were signs of blunt force trauma. Her death was officially ruled a homicide by multiple blunt force and sharp force trauma injuries.

Police also said there appeared to be evidence of a struggle inside the bedroom.

"This is a situation where the defendant was found in the home covered in his wife's blood," Burdick said in court. "It said that she had killed herself. The stab wounds, the bite marks on her face the blunt force trauma was not consistent with the self inflicted injury."

The criminal complaint also revealed the couple's 4-year-old child was home at the time of the murder. When Fritz's own father came to pick up the child, his "first words in response to learning of his daughter-in-law's passing was something along the lines of '[Zachary] killed her.'"

Fritz remains behind bars on a $1 million cash bond. Per WXOW, he's still looking for an attorney and will appear in court next on June 19.

The suspect was previously found not guilty due to mental disease for a 2009 domestic abuse incident.