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UMass Amherst chef charged with wife’s murder in campus hotel room
Police say Jeffrey MacDonald admitted to beating his wife to death intentionally.
A man who’s reportedly an award-winning UMass Amherst chef has been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the death of his wife, who was also a UMass employee.
Jeffrey C. MacDonald, 36, of Wilbraham, is facing charges of murder and assault and battery on a police officer after his wife, Emma MacDonald, 31, was found dead inside a room at Hotel UMass on Wednesday evening, according to a police report filed in Eastern Hampshire District Court.
MacDonald pleaded not guilty Thursday and was held without bail, the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office said in a release. The office confirmed both MacDonald and his wife were UMass Amherst employees and said the case remains under investigation.
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Campus police received a 911 call at 7:42 p.m. reporting an emergency in Room 413 of the campus hotel, according to the police report.
When officers arrived, MacDonald allegedly struck them. Inside the room, officers found Emma MacDonald dead.
MacDonald was taken into custody and later admitted to deliberately killing his wife, police said.
After being read his rights, MacDonald “admitted that he had intentionally beaten his wife to death, using his hands, feet, as well as a variety of other objects, and that it was his intent to kill her in doing so,” according to the report.
In a message to the campus community Thursday before the identity of the victim and suspect were released, the university’s chancellor, Javier Reyes, said, “There is no ongoing threat to our campus or the community,” in a statement obtained by The Boston Globe.
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The victim was a staff member at UMass, Reyes said.
MacDonald, a chef at the university, per the Globe, was named Chef of the Year by the American Culinary Federation last year, UMass announced in August.
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