Husband told neighbour ‘I think I killed my wife’ after stabbing her to death when he wrongly thought she was cheating
A BLOOD-soaked husband told his neighbour “I think I killed my wife” after he knifed her to death in the kitchen, a court heard.
Ertan Ersoy allegedly stabbed Dr Antonella Castelvedere, 52, “many times” at their home in Colchester, Essex.
The 51-year-old then ran onto the street “soaked in blood” and holding his stomach, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.
Neighbour Tanja Munro told jurors Ersoy was also “breathing like he was in pain” and “groaning”.
She added: “He told me, ‘I think I’ve killed my wife’.
“He was gesturing and looking towards the kitchen.”
Ms Munro said she could see someone lying on the floor even though the kitchen door was not fully open.
The neighbour said Ersoy appeared “concerned” about Dr Castelvedere and kept saying “my wife, my wife”.
She told the court she tended to Ersoy’s bleeding before she went to check on his wife, who was on the floor with a knife “close to her hand by her head”.
Ms Munro added: “It was almost like a halo of blood behind her on the floor.”
The neighbour said she attempted to save the lecturer but stopped when she realised she could no more.
Ersoy then asked her “my wife?”, which she took to mean “is she OK?” so she just shook her head in response.
Ms Munro added: “We didn’t speak about anything else.”
Prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC told jurors previously Ersoy’s “anger, jealousy and his failings led to him killing his wife”.
The couple married in 2014 and shared a daughter but their relationship “appeared to be volatile, unstable and rocky”.
Ersoy believed his wife, who taught an MA in English and creative writing at the University of Suffolk, was cheating.
He bugged the family home with a listening device but this “proved no such thing”, it was said.
Ersoy had also searched for a private investigator online and was allegedly “obsessed” with his wife’s previous relationships.
Before her death, Dr Castelvedere had told a friend her husband had “fallen back into a dark state of mind and I fear for my safety”.
Just 24 hours later, she died on the kitchen floor with a 15cm knife wound on her neck.
Dr Castelvedere also had 15 “sharp force” injuries to her face, neck, chest and hands.
Police later discovered notes she made on her phone leading up to the killing – including one in December 2021 where Ersoy had sent links to sites “on the topic of obsession with ex-boyfriend”.
Another in October 2021 told how Ersoy had allegedly got drunk and “threatened” his wife.
Ersoy claims he was stabbed by Dr Castelvedere, which caused two shallow wounds to his stomach, but prosecutors claim there is “no independent evidence” of this.
The dad claims he was suffering from an “abnormality of mental functioning that arose from a medical condition, depression” at the time of the stabbing, the court heard.
Ersoy, who is also a lecturer and teaching fellow, denies murder but admits manslaughter.
The trial continues.