An Allegheny County district judge has ordered 38-year-old Teresa Drum to stand trial for allegedly killing her husband Dennis Drum Sr. on February 27, 2017. The defendant is accused of shooting her husband in the head after a bitter argument over beer and a burnt casserole, then taking a photo of his dead body and sending it to her friend via text message. The judge added an evidence-tampering charge on top of the homicide charge on Friday.

Photo evidence leads to wife's arrest

According to the criminal complaint, Teresa Drum told 911 dispatch officers that her husband shot himself.

When first responders arrived, the accused showed paramedics a photo she had taken of her dead husband on her cell phone which she sent to a friend via text message before their arrival. The photo did not show a gun in the husband's hand. In court documents police state that when they arrived at the home, they found the victim on the bed in a fetal position in the couple's bedroom with a gun in his hand.

Court records indicate that the accused told detectives that she had taken the photo because she didn't know what to do. She also admitted to have taken a shower to rinse off and placed her bloody clothes in the laundry before calling 911. According to her cell phone, the photo was taken 11 minutes prior to Drum calling 911.

Police Chief Terry Kuhns of Frazer Township told Pittsburgh Action News 4 at a press conference, "Anytime you see something of that nature, where crucial evidence is moved, and you have inconsistent statements and discrepancies, it's cause for concern."

Wife gives conflicting statements of how husband died

According to the criminal complaint, Drum claimed that she and her husband had been arguing over the fact that she drank his last beer and that she burnt their casserole earlier that evening.

Investigators said that Drum provided multiple versions of the incident, first claiming that her husband committed suicide and then later saying that the gun went off when she pushed it away. She later claimed that her husband put her hand on the trigger with his finger before the gun went off. She was unable to explain why the gun was in her husband's hand when police arrived, but in the photo that she took and sent to her friend prior to their arrival, there was no evidence of a gun near the body.

The couple's two children were at home at the time of the Crime and were unharmed. They are now staying with relatives. Teresa Drum is being held in Allegheny County jail without bail.
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