LIVE OAK, Texas – Live Oak police have charged Earl James Otter, 48, with murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend, which was initially reported to be a suicide.
The 37-year-old female victim was found dead at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at a home in the 7400 block of Village Oak. Lt. Matt Malone said police found the woman in a bedroom with a gunshot wound to the right side of her neck.
Police responded to the home for a possible suicide. Evidence suggested to investigators that the victim was killed by someone other than herself.
"After we made the initial scene and we determined that the victim actually was deceased, we had the other person out of the house and we were asking him what happened," Malone said. "He was giving us an account and it just wasn't matching up with what we saw inside the home."
Police questioned Otter, who lived in the house and who had made the initial 911 call.
"We asked him to come up here to the police department to speak with us more," Malone said. "He came up here voluntarily. After detectives talked to him for a while, they believed that he actually committed the murder."
Otter was arrested and charged with murder.
An 8-year-old child who was inside the home at the time of the shooting is now in the care of Child Protective Services.
