Fleshman bound over for trial on second-degree murder charge

“If I ever pass away, my husband did it.”

Before she died on Oct. 21, 2015, Elizabeth Fleshman of Holton reportedly wrote those words on a piece of paper that Jackson County Sheriff’s Detective Phil McManigal said was likely intended to be found by law enforcement officers and emergency medical techni­cians.

McManigal repeated those words on Wednesday morning during a preliminary hearing in Jackson County District Court for George E. Fleshman Jr., who is facing a second-degree murder charge in the death of his wife, Elizabeth.

Fleshman, who was arrested and charged with the crime in March, is currently free on $75,000 bond.

After hearing testimony from McManigal, former Holton police officer Terry Clark and Kansas City-based forensic pathology spe­cialist Dr. Erik Mitchell, District Court Judge Norbert Marek bound Fleshman over for trial. Fleshman is next scheduled to appear in court on Friday, July 15 for arraignment.

Clark, who was working as a patrol officer in Holton in October of last year, testified that he re­sponded to Fleshman’s 911 call on Oct. 20 stating that his wife of 25 years was having a “medical emer­gency” and was unresponsive. Elizabeth Fleshman was taken first to Holton Community Hospital, then to St. Francis Hospital in Topeka, where she died the next day.

At HCH, Clark said nursing staff “advised me of a domestic situa­tion” between the Fleshmans — a the two of them having been arrested in June fol­lowing an altercation at their home, it was reported.

After Elizabeth Fleshman was transferred to St. Francis, Clark said another nurse told him that her condition could have been caused by “a blow.”

McManigal was called in to as­sist Clark with the investigation into Elizabeth Fleshman’s death after Clark noted that George Fleshman’s behavior following the death of his wife “seemed suspi­cious.”

According to McManigal, Fleshman told him and Clark that his wife’s injury was likely caused by a fall, since she was on “lots of medications” and “took ibuprofen by the handful.”

But the more Clark and McManigal investigated the Fleshmans’ home, they said, the more it be­came clear to them that the injury that caused Elizabeth Fleshman’s death was not caused by a fall.

McManigal added that he was able to obtain her medical records, which indicated “no significant history of falling.”

Furthermore, McManigal said he spoke with the Fleshmans’ family members and friends about the couple and was told that “people liked Elizabeth,” that George’s be­havior was opposite to hers “espe­cially when drinking,” and that they told him that they suspected that Elizabeth was “a victim of abuse.”

McManigal said he was present at the autopsy conducted by Mitchell, who discovered the cause of Elizabeth Fleshman’s death — a ruptured spleen. It was later determined to be due to a “physical assault.”

On the witness stand Wednesday, Mitchell also noted that the spleen rupturing due to a fall was unlikely, while “a punch could do it” if one was thrown hard enough.

Later, when law enforcement officers searched the Fleshmans’ home for “anything to support, or not, that she died at his hands,” McManigal said he had found the letter that Elizabeth had reportedly written at some point in 2015, stating that if she were to die, it would be her husband’s fault.

McManigal testified that he called George Fleshman in for an interview prior to his March arrest, and at the time, he said, Fleshman agreed that the injury to his wife’s spleen could not have been caused by a fall or dogs jumping on her. Later in the interview, McManigal testified that Fleshman “came short of taking re­sponsibility” for his wife’s death.