Homicide suspect allegedly called moments after wife’s shooting death
Shortly after Louise Weis-Edmonds died from a gunshot wound to the back of her head on March 25, 2014, Kandace Crouse received a strange call from a man at the victim’s North Strabane home.
“I killed Louise. I’m sorry,” Crouse recounted the man telling her, which she thought was a prank.
Crouse didn’t think anything of it until the next morning when she saw on the news that Weis-Edmonds, 49, had been shot to death and her husband, Scott Edmonds, was charged with homicide.
Crouse then looked back at their call log and matched the phone number to one that had called her husband, Scott, hours earlier. Edmonds, who was a licensed physical therapist, called in the morning before Weis-Edmonds’ death to cancel an appointment with Scott Crouse, who was recovering from recent hip surgery.
“It was very monotone,” Kandace Crouse recounted about the man’s voice in the phone call she received later that evening. “It was very calm.”
While she did not recognize the voice, Crouse and her husband went to North Strabane police to report the strange encounter. The couple both testified Thursday about the experience during the second day of Edmonds’ homicide trial in Washington County Court of Common Pleas.
North Strabane police Detective Michael Lukanski testified he interviewed Edmonds, who appeared to be drunk in the hours after his wife’s death, when the suspect began to talk about his wife.
“I did it. It’s all my fault,” Lukanski recounted Edmonds telling him.
Edmonds elaborated that he failed to give his wife the emotional support she needed despite offering her a lavish lifestyle, Lukanski said. But Edmonds also asked Lukanski where his wife was, despite being told by several officers that she had died. Lukanski testified that Edmonds then hypothesized that Weis-Edmonds had killed herself with the .380 handgun in their home.
“I’m done,” Edmonds told Lukanski during the interview. “My life is over.”
Lukanski said he then pushed Edmonds during the interview for an explanation about how Weis-Edmonds died since there were only two people in the house at the time and the handgun was found in the pocket of a pool table in another room.
“What are you asking me?” Edmonds said during the police interview.
“Did you shoot Louise?” Lukanski asked.
“Did I shoot Louise?” Edmonds asked rhetorically.
“Did you shoot Louise?” Lukanski asked again.
“No,” Edmonds answered.
But a forensic pathologist who reviewed the case found it unlikely that she could have shot herself. Dr. Jennifer Hammers, who was brought in to testify following the recent death of Dr. Cyril Wecht, ruled Weis-Edmonds’ death a homicide and said she determined the handgun was pressed against the back of the victim’s head, which produced a muzzle imprint.
“Most self-inflicted wounds typically do not involve the back of the head,” Hammers said while showing the jury autopsy photos.
She then was handed a replica handgun by First Assistant District Attorney Leslie Mylan to demonstrate how that would happen. Hammers noted that the handgun would likely be turned slightly and not produce a “straight-up” directional gunshot wound that Weis-Edmonds suffered.
“It’s almost impossible to hold the gun without tilting it to the left or right,” Hammers said. “It’s an uncomfortable position.”
Mylan then asked North Strabane police Officer Brian Hart to demonstrate the most likely scenario with someone standing behind the victim and pulling the trigger with the gun pressed to the back of her head. Hammers said the bullet went through the top of Weis-Edmonds’ spinal cord and brain stem before being lodged in her head. She indicated that Weis-Edmonds likely died nearly instantly and would not have been able to move the gun into another room.
“She would’ve been immediately incapacitated … with no willful movement, including the movement of the gun,” Hammers testified.
Edmonds, who is now 60, is facing one felony charge of criminal homicide and a misdemeanor charge of evidence tampering. He has been held without bond at the Washington County jail since his arrest following his wife’s death.
Testimony will continue this morning. The trial, which is being presided over by Judge John DiSalle, is expected to last until next week.