Jamie Kuhne Killed Wife, Stuffed Her in Suitcase, Took Son to Day Care, Then Calmly Told Police
Booking photo of Jamie A. Kuhne, December 11, 2009.
Herndon Police Lt. Jeff Coulter said that at around 7 a.m. on Friday morning, Kuhne, 34, walked calmly into police headquarters and handed a note to one of the dispatchers at the front desk. Coulter would not disclose the full contents of the note, but revealed that it said Kuhne had killed his 36-year-old wife and her body was in their Herndon apartment, about 30 miles west of Washington D.C.
Coulter said Kuhne was immediately taken into custody and detectives were dispatched to the couple's home, where they found the wife's body stuffed inside a large suitcase on the balcony of the apartment. He said the body was not dismembered and the woman was apparently small enough to fit in a large suitcase.
Investigators believe she was strangled sometime late Thursday or early Friday and they think the 1-year-old was in the apartment at the time, Coulter said.
According to authorities, police had been called to the residence several times for domestic violence - once in Oct. 2008 and again in August of this year - but there had been no arrests or charges filed. Neighbors said that the woman was a stay-at-home mom who doted on her young son, who had recently learned to walk, and that they were often seen walking down the halls, The Washington Post reported.
According to his LinkedIn page Kuhne was a presidential management fellow at the Minerals Management Service, a division of the US Department of the Interior.
The young boy was retrieved from day care and placed with Child Protective Services while police tried to contact relatives. The victim's name is not being released until police can notify the family.