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Eden Prairie man charged with assisting wife's suicide

Police found the woman was dead and a handwritten note was nearby, saying she could not endure any more pain.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. - An Eden Prairie man has been charged with aiding suicide in the death of his wife.

Thomas James Houck, 61, remains in jail and is expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday.

According to the criminal complaint, Houck called 911 about 2:20 a.m. Thursday, telling the dispatcher he awoke in the middle of the night to find his wife had “euthanized herself.” He added that his wife used nitrogen and was lying on her back in the bed with a plastic bag over her head.

When Eden Prairie police arrived, they found the woman was dead and a handwritten note was nearby, saying she could not endure any more pain, the complaint states. It does not specify the source of the cause of the pain, but Thomas Houck told police she was in a lot of pain and medication wasn't helping.

Houck told police several different versions of what happened, starting with waking up to go to the bathroom and finding his wife dead, to admitting he went to the store with her to buy the nitrogen and a regulator, but nothing more, according to the complaint.

Eventually, Houck admitted he was with his wife when she put the bag over her head and he turned on the nitrogen gas and held the bag closed over her head. He later drove to a nearby store and dumped the gloves he was wearing into a dumpster, the complaint states.

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