By Danielle Quisenberry | Jackson Citizen P...
June 01, 2010, 8:56PM
A 34-year-old woman is expected to be arraigned Wednesday or Thursday on a murder charge for allegedly helping a man kill his wife and then standing by as the man killed himself.
She is accused of working with Ray William Zuke Jr., 47, to kill Dianna Zuke, 45, sometime during the holiday weekend inside the Jackson house she shared with both of them. She was then present as a distraught Ray Zuke committed suicide, apparently by hanging, said Deputy Chief John Holda.
Jackson police arrested the woman Tuesday, according to a city police department statement.
Her name has not been released.
“That’s a hell of a blow,” the couple’s friend, Frances Southwell, said of the deaths. The two had health, substance abuse and other problems. “But they were my friends,” she said Tuesday.
“This has devastated me.”
A relative discovered the bodies about 4:45 p.m. Monday inside the Zukes’ home in the 300 block of Union Street, Holda said. Ray Zuke was downstairs. His wife was in an upstairs bedroom. A neighbor said the relative came to her home, upset and scared, and asking to call 911.
Neighbors said they did not realize what occurred until police filled Union Street and remained there for hours.
“It’s kind of an eerie feeling to have your door wide open and have two people killed right across the street and not even know it,” said Kelly Yount, who had been staying with her daughter across the street from the Zukes’ house.
Autopsies were performed Tuesday, Holda said. The results of Dianna Zuke’s autopsy was “inconclusive,” he said. He would not release her probable cause of death because he did not want to jeopardize the case. She did not die by gunfire, he said.
What brought about the alleged killing and suicide is not clear.
Drugs might have been involved, but investigators will not know for sure until toxicology testing is done, Holda said.
Friends of the couple said the two struggled with substance abuse. Ray Zuke drank heavily and both he and his wife used crack, friends said.
“They got tangled up with the wrong kind of people, with drugs,” said Mary Cornwell of Jackson, who said she had know them for years.
The two stayed away from cocaine for a while, but seemed to have gotten back into it, Southwell said as she sat in her Jackson apartment. A 2006 photograph of the Zukes posing in front of a green background hung on the wall in a plastic frame.
Southwell said she was the “best man” at their wedding. The two got married May 26, 2005, and Southwell, a witness, signed the marriage license.
Dianna Zuke had been married twice previously; it was Ray Zuke’s second marriage, according to the license.
The two met the 34-year-old at the Interfaith Shelter, 414 S. Blackstone St. “They told her she could live with them for a third of the rent and she went for it,” Southwell said.
The 34-year-old had some mental-health issues and the Zukes were supposed to be her caregivers, said the woman’s sister-in-law, Victoria Ebbert.
Ebbert, Southwell and Cornwell said the couple did not treat the 34-year-old well. They were “very controlling,” Ebbert said.
Southwell said all three of them lived on Supplemental Security Income, government dollars provided to people with low income and few resources who are 65 or older or disabled.
They did not associate much with their families, friends said. Dianna Zuke had several children, friends said.
“I loved my brother, don’t get me wrong,” said Ray Zuke’s sister, Donna Jaycox. “I just didn’t like the things he did.”
Through a friend, Jaycox declined further comment. Calling the deaths a “horrific situation,” the friend said Ray Zuke’s family wanted to be left alone.
Late Tuesday morning, people were driving slowly by the Zukes’ home. Police did not release the specific address, but neighbors identified it as 339 Union St., between First and Woodbridge streets.
The house had been rented to several people through the years, said Wayne Nichols, who has lived just west of the home for about nine years and estimated the Zukes had been there about a year. “It’s not the best neighborhood,” Nichols said.
Dianna and Ray Zukes had lived at several different addresses. They had trouble paying rent, Cornwell said.
She said they did not have any issues at their previous homes. “They move over there, and now they are dead,” she said.
“It just seems strange to me.”
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