WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — A man called police saying his wife shot and killed herself. Then, he was arrested nearly eight hours later for malice murder.
Brian McManus, 55, is charged in the death of his wife, Lucille Ann McManus, 63, in Warner Robins on Nov. 25.
Police initially said in a press release they were investigating a "suspicious death" in after a "possible suicide" at 202 Wake Forest Drive. The incident happened at 9:10 a.m., on Friday according to the media release.
While the police and media don't often report on suicide, police sent the initial media release stating the nature and cause of death are under investigation.
Taylor Robbins lives across the street from the McManus residence.
He said he was leaving for work at 8:41 a.m., according to his home surveillance footage, which is around the time he saw Brian walking his schnauzer.
Robbins has lived in the same home in Warner Robins for over 20 years.
They weren't close, he said, but it's not unusual for him to see his neighbor and they'd wave at each other when they did.
"We physically crossed paths, but we never had any conversation or got any context about him, or anything," Robbins said.
On Friday, however, he took a different road to work to stop by the bank and saw Brian walking his dog on a different route.
"I saw he was, kinda, not on the block that he normally is. He was just a bit further down near a ditch," Robbins said.
Warner Robins Police Sgt. Justin Clark said, Brian called police at around 9 a.m. to say he found his wife dead upon returning home from walking the dog.
"His wife, Mrs. McManus, committed suicide," Clark said. "Or, so he thought."
Clark said McManus' narrative was that his wife shot and killed herself, but investigators didn't think Brian's timeline matched what "the crime scene itself suggested."
According to Clark, folks called the wife "Ann."
She was found by first responders in bed with blood around her. They also found Ann's head had been hit causing blunt force trauma, according to police.
Clark said some of the information McManus was giving to investigators did not corroborate with the physical evidence and home surveillance footage they found "mostly through canvassing the neighborhood."
According to Warner Robins Police, "investigators did locate possible items of evidence in the immediate area" of the McManus' residence. They did not say what that evidence is.
Some heard arguing from the home the night before and the morning of the incident, according to neighbors.
When first responders arrived, Brian was "calm, not overly emotional," and the detective wasn't fully confident about the possibility of a suicide because the scene suggested "it was not a typical suicide," Clark said.
Clark said Ann has family in the area; Brian is from England, lives in the States on a visa and has an arrest record, police say. They are attempting to reach out to other departments for details.
Brian was arrested just before 5 p.m. Friday, almost eight hours after he called police.
Clark said he was booked and processed at the Warner Robins Police Department before going to the Houston County Jail.
Brian's first appearance was Sunday, Nov. 26 according to the Houston County District Attorney's Office. He is currently waiting for his bond hearing.
Lucille Ann's autopsy will be conducted at the GBI Crime Lab in Macon on Tuesday.
No cause of death has been determined yet. The case is still being investigated.
Detective K. Thompson and Detective E. Smith are the lead investigators. If you have any information on this case, you can call them at 478-302-5380, or Macon Regional Crimestoppers.