16-05-2025
Watch Live: Dover doctor Ingolf Tuerk to be sentenced in wife's strangling death
A doctor from Dover, Massachusetts is set to be sentenced in the strangling death of his wife.
Ingolf Tuerk was charged with murder in the death of his wife, 45-year-old Kathleen McLean, in May 2020. Tuerk admitted to putting his hands on McLean's neck but said he was defending himself during a fight after she threw a glass at him.
"I snapped, I kind of blacked out," Tuerk testified during his trial. "I grabbed her. On the neck."
Tuerk is being sentenced on Friday at 2 p.m. You can watch his sentencing in the video player above.
Admitted to strangling wife
McLean's body was later found in a pond near their Valley Road home weighed down by rocks. Prosecutors said the medical examiner found "injuries and bruising consistent with strangulation."
Police found Tuerk unresponsive in a Dedham hotel the same day his wife's body was found. He testified during his trial that he had tried to kill himself. He told police at the time he strangled his wife, panicked when he realized she was dead and dumped her body in the pond.
Convicted of voluntary manslaughter
A jury convicted Tuerk of voluntary manslaughter earlier this month.
Tuerk and McLean got married in December 2019. McLean had accused Tuerk of abuse several times and had filed a restraining order against him in February 2020.
Tuerk was once the head of urology at Boston Medical Center-Brighton (formerly St. Elizabeth's Medical Center). At the time of McLean's death, Steward Medical Group said in a statement, "Dr. Tuerk has not seen or treated patients as part of Steward Medical Group for more than a year. He was formally terminated in February."
Tuerk faces up to 20 years in prison for the manslaughter conviction.
