An Indiana man stands accused of murder after he beat his girlfriend in the head with the dull end of an ax.
Travis Wolfe allegedly killed Kimberly Stewart on the night of Tuesday, March 10.
Detectives with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department arrested Wolfe, 45, for murder after Stewart’s remains were found in the backyard of her own home.
Stewart, 51, was declared dead at the scene.
According to police, it was obvious at the scene she had been bludgeoned in the head.
An autopsy determined her death was a homicide from multiple blunt force trauma injuries.
It was a friend of Stewart’s who called 911 and alerted Indianapolis Metropolitan Police to her death.
He had stopped by around 4:30 p.m. but got no response at the front door and went to work. He swung by after his shift and saw Stewart’s dog outside.
He walked up to the back gate, which was open, and he tried her phone. He followed the ringtone until he found her body between a wooden fence and an outdoor spa.
She was cold and stiff when he went to shake her awake, he told police.
The friend then grabbed Stewart’s phone and left the backyard to go call 911.
The friend allegedly told detectives that Wolfe had been “threatening to kill people” a day earlier, and described him as a “psychopath maniac,” according to court documents shared with Us Weekly.
He also allegedly said Wolfe was confrontational with most of his neighbors and mused often about how they were all “out to get him.”
He also is said to have told investigators that Wolfe used methamphetamine and said that he was Stewart’s boyfriend. He said he lived in Stewart’s garage, and that the two argued “all the time.”
Wolfe denied having anything to do with Stewart’s murder but did acknowledge owning an ax and often carrying it with him.
As they were investigating, detectives found a neighbor who said, while loading something into his car, he heard a woman yell and then allegedly saw a man on the ground with a “club or hammer” swinging toward the ground. The man kept yelling at a barking dog “to shut up.”
Wolfe was arrested on a preliminary murder charge. He also had an open warrant related to an unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon case.
He remains in custody, but it was unclear if bond had been granted. Information on his attorney was also unavailable on Friday, March 13.
