WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — A Lycoming County man tried to kill his wife in January and then pass it off as a suicide, police in Williamsport said.
Dane Kay, 31, is charged in a criminal complaint filed Monday with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, strangulation, possessing instruments of crime, tampering with evidence, recklessly endangering another person and making a false report to law enforcement. Kay was not in custody as of Monday afternoon.
Kay called the police early in the morning on Jan. 21 to report that his wife tried to hang herself from the shower in their bathroom at Trenton Avenue home.
Kay told the police she made suicidal comments when he suggested they separate. When she went to take a shower, he said, she tried to commit suicide.
The bruise on Dane Kay's arm tipped off the police that there was more to the story. Police said his wife woke up four days later at a hospital and helped fill in the details.
In her telling, the pair started arguing when she mentioned that she wanted to leave. Dane Kay would not allow her.
The fight turned physical. Dane Kay strangled her until she blacked out, she said. She recalled being dragged up the stairs, but nothing after that.
During the subsequent investigation, police spoke with neighbors who backed up the injured woman’s story. Police also concluded the shower head also could not have supported the woman’s weight.
Investigators concluded the scene was “staged” to cover up Kay’s near killing of his wife.
