Man charged with murder in wife's 140-foot fall at Pictured Rocks
2/6/2007, 5:40 p.m. ET
The Associated Press


MUNISING, Mich. (AP) — A man whose wife fell 140 feet to her death last summer at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore was charged Tuesday with killing her.

Thomas Richardson, of McBain, was arraigned in Alger County District Court on an open murder charge and a manslaughter charge, Prosecutor Karen Bahrman said in a statement.

The charges resulted from an investigation involving sheriff's deputies in Alger and Missaukee counties, state police and the FBI, Bahrman said. They determined local authorities had primary jurisdiction and the case would be prosecuted on the county level.

Defense attorney Jason Elmore said Richardson, a delivery trucker, was innocent.

"Tom did not kill his wife," Elmore told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "We believe that after a trial, he will be vindicated. There is no physical evidence of any wrongdoing. The case, we expect, will largely be based on rumor and speculation."

Juanita L. Richardson, 43, died June 22 in the plunge about a quarter-mile south of Miners Castle, a popular overlook at the federally protected shoreline on Lake Superior.

Her husband ran to a visitor center to report her fall. Her body was found face down and barefoot at the base of a 140-foot-high cliff.

Juanita Richardon, a school athletic department secretary, was the mother of three adult children.

Police used a search warrant to confiscate computers from the Richardson home. They have said Thomas Richardson's inconsistent accounts of what happened led them to investigate the death as a homicide rather than an accident.

Richardson initially told police he did not see his wife fall, having left the place on the cliff the couple reportedly referred to as their "honeymoon spot" to relieve himself, The Mining Journal of Marquette reported. He said he did not hear any screams, the newspaper said.

UPDATE: A man accused of pushing his wife to her death from a cliff at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore was expecting her to seek a divorce and had been having an affair, according to a police affidavit.
The document, filed in Alger County District Court, says Thomas David Richardson killed Juanita L. Richardson to cash in on a life insurance policy and gain freedom to pursue his illicit relationship.

This sounded fishy from the get. What is up with these men murdering their wives? Why not just leave?

Some one had a People magazine at work with a murdered wife who was pregnant. No official suspects. No sign of forced entry. Money problems. Beaten to death. You know the husband did it.

Entwistle hasn't gone to trial yet. It'll probably be a bit before this joker goes to trial. Weird. I should look up what's going on with Lori Hacking's (?) husband. I think that's the name.

Makes you not even want to date.