Autopsies show wife strangled, husband drowned in murder-suicide

BEXLEY, Ohio - A husband beat and strangled his wife, threw her lifeless body in their swimming pool and then drowned himself while their children were sleeping, authorities said.

The bodies of Billy Matthews, 42, and his wife, Kelly, 41, were found in the pool early Wednesday.

Their five children, ages 3 to 10, were asleep inside the family's home in this Columbus suburb. Two notes left in the house asked relatives to take care of the children.

Autopsies and forensic tests performed Thursday showed Matthews apparently beat his wife with a baseball bat while she was asleep on a waterbed, knocking her unconscious. He then strangled her with his hands, dragged her body to the backyard pool and dumped her in the water, Franklin County Coroner Bradley Lewis said.

Billy Matthews, a Sunday school teacher and Boy Scout leader, drowned, Lewis said. He was found in the pool's deep end with his ankles inserted into a cinder block and tightly secured with duct tape.

Detectives found a bloodstained baseball bat in an upstairs bedroom and bloodstains in the bedroom and bathroom.