63-Year-Old N.C. Teacher Accused of Sex With Teen Student Murdered Husband Before Killing Herself
A 63-year-old North Carolina teacher who was accused of having sex with her 17-year-old student killed her husband before fatally shooting herself, police announced Friday.
Police say Emma Neil Ogle used a handgun to kill husband Michael Ogle on Nov. 5, the night before they were both discovered by police officers at about 8 a.m.. A family member had come to check on the couple after Michael didn’t show up for work that morning at his flooring business.
Both were found with gunshot wounds to the head.
“We are going with the murder-suicide,” Huntersville Police Department officer Odette Saglimbeni tells PEOPLE. “She was facing some issues.”
Saglimbeni says investigators are still trying to determine a motive.
“Until we can really confirm a motive we don’t really have one at this point,” she says. “Based on those charges [of sex with a minor] we would assume that may have had some part in it, but we don’t know if it was the only reason why she did that.”
Saglimbeni says investigators are combing through evidence as well as looking at phone numbers to see who Emma may have spoken to prior to the incident.
“They are trying to figure out phone numbers to see who she was speaking with, but we aren’t ready to confirm that she made contact with somebody about what was going on,” Saglimbeni says. “We found various things she had written and that is what we are still trying to piece together.”
Saglimbeni says after Michael didn’t show up to work, an employee unsuccessfully attempted to make contact with him.
“A family member went to check on him and saw Emma in the house with a gun,” she says. “And that is when we got called.”
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Saglimbeni says Emma killed herself before officers and SWAT members went inside the home.
Emma, a CTE Health Occupations teacher at Charlotte’s Garinger High School, was arrested Oct. 31 and charged with having sex with a student, crimes against nature with a student and felony indecent liberties with a student.
She had been out of jail on a $10,000 bond.
According to WSOC-TV, Emma Ogle allegedly began a relationship with the student last spring and it turned sexual in the summer.
“It is not anything we expect ever,” Saglimbeni says. “It is a sad situation. It is one of those isolated type of situations we don’t see that often.”
