Authorities still investigating how Centerville woman died

Spouse says she fell; coroner says blunt force trauma was the cause.

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By Lou Grieco, Staff Writer 1:18 AM Friday, December 2, 2011

CENTERVILLE — Three months after Tamela Schroeder-Walker’s death, authorities know what killed her. They still don’t know how it happened.

Schroeder-Walker, 51, died from blunt force head trauma, with alcoholic liver disease as a contributing factor, the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office found.

But the manner of death has been ruled undetermined.

“The injuries that are present could be from a fall,” Coroner Kent Harshbarger said Thursday. “But there are a lot of inconsistencies.”

Her husband, Scott A. Walker, called 911 at 8:45 a.m. Sept. 1, saying that his wife passed away during the night. But authorities believe she had been dead for much longer, perhaps as much as two days, when her husband made the call.

“Clearly, she was dead longer than his initial statements,” Harshbarger said.

The case is still under investigation and detectives anticipate speaking with prosecutors about the evidence, Centerville Officer Matt Dunn said. He declined to comment further.

Greg Flannagan, spokesman for the county prosecutor’s office, said the three-prosecutor panel that performed the initial review of evidence was awaiting additional test results from the Miami Valley Regional Crime Laboratory before reconvening.

Walker, 55, was arrested after his wife’s death, but released from the county jail. No criminal charges had been filed as of late Thursday. Walker could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The couple lived at 2614 E. Centerville-Station Road.

In a 911 recording, Walker can be heard telling a dispatcher that his wife “took a crash the other night getting up to go to the bathroom.” He says she doesn’t appear to be breathing and he can’t find a pulse, but says he doesn’t want emergency personnel to rush. He mentions that his wife possibly had a do not resuscitate order.

“I think she has passed away,” he told the dispatcher.

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