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Dover doctor convicted of voluntary manslaughter after he admitted to killing wife
Jurors spared Ingolf Tuerk a life sentence for killing Kathleen McLean, convicting him of a lesser charge Thursday.
A Dover doctor was convicted of voluntary manslaughter Thursday after he admitted to strangling his wife in 2020 and dumping her body in a local pond.
Ingolf “Harry” Tuerk, 63, hung his head and wept as the guilty verdict was read aloud in court.
Though Tuerk had been charged with first-degree murder for killing 45-year-old Kathleen McLean, the jury convicted him of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter and spared him a life sentence. He is scheduled for sentencing May 16 and faces up to 20 years in prison, though his lawyer, Kevin Reddington, said sentencing guidelines would call for something in the realm of 9 to 12 years.
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“I would say that we were very pleased with the verdict,” Reddington said in a brief phone interview Thursday.
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The jury, he said, took the time to listen to the judge and consider the evidence, ultimately making what he felt was the right decision.
Still, Reddington added, “All in all, no matter how you look at it, it’s a human tragedy.”
The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.
Earlier this week, Tuerk testified that he “blacked out” and grabbed McLean by the neck after she allegedly smashed a glass over his head during a drunken altercation at home in May 2020. Married for about five months, the couple had recently reconciled following a turbulent period of estrangement.
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While prosecutor Elizabeth McLaughlin painted Tuerk as a “methodical and detail-oriented” cold-blooded killer during her closing argument, Tuerk maintained he did not intend to harm or kill his wife.
“I didn’t like to cause the death of another human being,” the former St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center urology chief testified. “I spent all my life to save lives. So I was pretty much in shock myself with what happened, yes. I was extremely sorry, and guilty, and shameful about what happened.”
To hear Reddington tell it, Tuerk acted in self-defense in the heat of the moment.
“There’s no intent to kill; there’s an intent for self-preservation,” Reddington said in his closing argument, adding, “This is the end of a tragic human story.”
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