Pasadena man suspected of killing wife

This in the very exclusive neighborhood southwest of Suicide Bridge along the Arroyo Seco:

PASADENA – The husband of a woman found dead from a trauma wound to the head earlier this month pleaded not guilty to murder charges Wednesday, prosecutors said.

Police arrested Mark Roevekamp, 55, of Pasadena, on suspicion of murder Monday after coroner’s officials determined his wife, 53-year-old Cynthia Ford, died from a blunt force trauma wound to the skull.

Roevekamp called police on May 13 and reported that he found his wife dead at their home in the 500 block of Lakeview Road when he returned from work that day.

Pasadena police Cmdr. John Perez said Roevekamp admitted to hitting his wife the night before she died.

“The husband admitted to slapping her the night before,” Perez said. “They were involved in an argument and he said she was acting aggressively towards him and that caused the slap.”

Roevekamp was not immediately arrested because no sign of trauma to Ford’s body was visible when she was found dead, Perez said. The injury was discovered during an autopsy, he said.

Murder charges were filed against Roevekamp on Wednesday before he was arraigned at Pasadena Superior Court, according to Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons.

Roevekamp is being held in lieu of $1 million bail, according to sheriff’s booking records. He is due back in court for a preliminary hearing setting on June 23, Gibbons said.

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