FORT WORTH, Texas — A Fort Worth man who reportedly told police that his wife fatally stabbed herself in the throat now faces a murder charge in her death, according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by WFAA.
Nathaniel Paul Rowland, 39, was arrested Tuesday, according to jail records. His bond was set at $500,000 at the Tarrant County Jail.
Rowland faces a murder charge in the Feb. 23 death of his wife, Elizabeth Rowland, at their home in the 1200 block of Camden Yard Drive in south Fort Worth near Burleson, police said.
Officers were dispatched to the home around 8:30 p.m. that evening after a man told 911 that his wife stabbed herself in the throat, according to the affidavit. Police arrived and found Rowland on the kitchen floor with a "significant" wound to her throat. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
When an officer interviewed Nathaniel Rowland, he told them that he and his wife were sitting in the garage when she got up and went into the kitchen, the affidavit said.
Nathaniel Rowland told the officers that he followed her into the kitchen and saw her "stabbing herself in the throat," according to the affidavit.
The officer who initially spoke with Rowland told the homicide detective that due to how significant Elizabeth Rowland was injured, he did not believe she could have done that to herself, the affidavit said.
The detective then met with Nathaniel Rowland and saw he had a "significant amount of blood" on his clothes, hands, face and hair, the affidavit said.
The detective also noted a "large amount" of blood on the floor surrounding Elizabeth Rowland and a bloodstained knife on the counter above her.
"It seemed unlikely that Elizabeth would have been able to place the knife on the counter top after inflicting such a severe injury to herself," the detective wrote in the affidavit.
Detectives continued interviewing Nathaniel Rowland, the affidavit said, and he told them he and his wife and her daughter had gone to dinner that night. When they got home, he and his wife went to the garage. At some point, he told police, his wife got up and ran into the kitchen, the affidavit said.
He followed her into the kitchen and "heard the sound of metal," according to the affidavit. He told police that he then saw her cutting herself.
The detective in the affidavit wrote that the medical examiner who conducted Elizabeth Rowland's autopsy "had concerns" due to the severity of her injuries. The doctor described injuries that were "not consistent with the injuries that Nathaniel said Elizabeth inflicted upon herself," the affidavit said.
Additionally, the detective described her wounds as "defensive in nature."
The detective also noted in the affidavit that Nathaniel Rowland at the scene was wearing a robe that covered blood-stained shorts. The robe also had "a small portion of flesh with hair on the inside hood of the robe," the affidavit said.
The detective wrote that he believed Nathaniel Rowland put the robe on after getting blood on his shorts.
In a follow-up interview, Nathaniel Rowland told detectives that he had some "'flashes" in his mind about more details of the events that night but he did not know if the "flashes" were real," the affidavit said.
"Nathaniel said he may have grabbed Elizabeth and attempted to prevent her from cutting herself," the affidavit said. "Nathaniel said he may have grabbed Elizabeth's arm that was holding the knife and assisted her to the ground in addition to placing the knife on the counter. These new 'flashes' were only mentioned by Nathaniel after confronting him."
