BALTIMORE _ A 32-year-old man has been charged with murder in the strangling death of his 63-year-old mother in her Northeast Baltimore home after funeral home employees preparing the woman's body for burial discovered signs of trauma to her head and neck that had not been apparent to law enforcement, police said Friday.
Erich Justin Kuhn was arrested Thursday and transported to Central Booking, charged with first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, and a weapons charge, police said.
According to a statement of charges, Kuhn "provided a complete confession" of the crime, giving "details on how he attacked his mother in the television room and struck her with his bare hands," then "strangled her for approximately 7 minutes until she stopped gurgling and finally died."
The weapon charge, the document says, relates to Kuhn using a "telephone cord" with "the intent and purpose of causing injury" to his mother.
Kuhn did not have an attorney listed in court records as of Friday, and could not be reached for comment.
Officers were first called to the home of his mother Cathy Kuhn _ in the city's Glenham Belhar neighborhood _ about 3:50 p.m. Wednesday after her husband, Michael Kuhn, came home and found her unresponsive, said Capt. Jarron Jackson, a police spokesman.
At the time, signs of trauma "were not apparent" and officers did not suspect foul play, Jackson said.
Police communicated their observations from the scene to the state medical examiner's office, which "declined to come out (to the scene) because we didn't see any obvious signs of trauma," Jackson said.
Bruce Goldfarb, a spokesman for the medical examiner's office, said he could not comment on the Kuhn case because it remains under investigation. He also would not discuss whether the case raises concerns for the medical examiner's office about the police department's assessment of deaths.
Generally after an unattended death, police provide the medical examiner's office with whatever information they have about the circumstances and their own observations at the scene, and the medical examiner's office conducts an "assessment of factors" to determine whether an autopsy is warranted, Goldfarb said.
"A doctor needs to sign a death certificate in every case," Goldfarb said. "If a doctor is not willing to, or if he is not sure about what the cause of death was, or has questions, then we would get involved."
Jackson would not comment on whether a family doctor signed off on Kuhn's death certificate or if her death was initially attributed to a pre-existing medical condition. Her family could not be reached. for comment.
Goldfarb said the medical examiner's office could, in theory, decide to investigate a death even if police say there is no evidence of foul play, but he could not think of any examples of that happening.
The office conducted about 5,000 autopsies last year, out of more than 40,000 deaths in the state, he said.
After the medical examiner's office declined to investigate Kuhn's death, her body was released to her family, and transported to the Leonard J. Ruck Funeral Home on Harford Road, according to the statement of charges.
It says the funeral home staff discovered "possible ligature marks" _ marks left by a cord, rope or similar item _ around Kuhn's throat and "possible trauma" to her head. They "immediately called police," Jackson said.
Paul Hartsock, the funeral home's manager, said Kuhn's case was "one of very few" in his 40 years in the business in which funeral home staff had to notify authorities that they had discovered signs of foul play. "It's not an everyday event, or a yearly event, that's for sure," he said.
Still, staff are trained to notify authorities if they "find things that don't seem proper," he said. "We just did our job."
The statement of charges says homicide detectives then responded to the home and quickly ordered that it be secured for a forensic examination and the collection of evidence. It says they discovered "evidence of a struggle/fight in the living room area" where Cathy Kuhn's body was found.
"Several witnesses were located and transported to the homicide unit for interviews," according to the statement of charges, and information was provided that Erich Kuhn "was possibly responsible" for his mother's death.
Jackson said without the injuries being apparent to the responding officer during the initial visit to the home, the scene may have just looked like "a messy room," not necessarily raising any suspicions of foul play.
"It's all about the context of the injury," he said. "It changes the perspective when looking at the scene itself."
The homicide detectives, with that context, would have been examining the scene with heightened scrutiny when they discovered the evidence of a fight, Jackson said.
Jackson said the homicide investigators "began putting together a timeline of events and spoke with several witnesses, which led them to the son," Jackson said.
Kuhn was located near or at his home and taken to the homicide unit for a formal interview Thursday, according to the statement of charges.
"Erich was advised of and waived his rights and provided a complete confession as to how and why he killed his mother," the document says.
His home also was secured and searched for evidence.
The medical examiner's office ruled his mother's death a homicide by strangulation the same day, according to the statement of charges.
Jackson said the fact that police missed any signs of trauma or foul play when they first responded to the home was not indicative of a failure in the process for identifying alleged crimes of this nature. In fact, he said the case showed the "checks and balances" built into the system work.
"It's a three-tiered process to catch incidents like this," Jackson said, referring to assessments by police, the medical examiner's office and funeral home employees, who he said are trained to call police if they identify any signs of foul play or trauma.
Jackson said it is not the case that victims of violence are buried in Baltimore without the trauma that killed them ever coming to light.
"That's not what happens," Jackson said. "You have multiple sets of eyes placed on remains to prevent something like that from happening."
