An Alfred man charged with killing his wife told friends he planned on taking his own life in the minutes before his arrest on April 10.
Emergency call transcripts obtained by the Press Herald detail the frantic response from James Crow’s loved ones within minutes of him posting what appeared to be a suicide note on Facebook. Only later did many of them learn that Kristen Crow was dead.
“I talk to him every day and this — I had a bad feeling,” one worried friend told dispatchers while racing to the family’s home on Waterboro Road. “Had a real bad feeling about this one.”
Crow, a veteran with a long history of mental health conditions and PTSD, told officers he did not mean to shoot his wife in the head shortly before 3 p.m. on April 10, according to court documents.
Immediately after the fatal shooting, he called several friends and family members and admitted what he had done, the calls show. Separately, he posted a message to social media that raised the alarms of those who had long been concerned for his mental health.
“I couldn’t do it anymore,” the post reads. “I’m so sorry everyone. I really am. I wish none of this happened. I snapped. My brain is broken and there’s no coming back now. I love my children so much and I only hope that someone good takes care of them. I’m sorry.”
As Crow fled his home, dispatchers received more than a dozen calls from friends and colleagues who feared he would attempt suicide, and from Crow’s closest confidants, who knew he had not turned the gun on himself, but on his wife.
Shortly before 3 p.m. on April 10, a man who identified himself as James Crow called police dispatchers and told them he had shot his wife at the couple’s home on Waterboro Road and then left. Soon after, York County Sheriff’s deputies and a Maine state trooper who happened to be in the vicinity entered the home and found the couple’s 18-year-old son and Kristan Crow’s body on a bed with “a significant amount of blood around her face,” according to a police affidavit filed in the case.
Crow surrendered to police in the parking lot of Harry’s Convenience Store in Lyman around 4:30 p.m. Monday. An officer found a green SIG Sauer automatic pistol in Crow’s truck. State police said he surrendered without incident.
Crow remains at York County Jail, where he is being held without bail after making his first court appearance on April 12. He is expected to be back in court for a status conference on July 7, but could likely return to court earlier for an arraignment if a grand jury brings an indictment.