The husband of an Alabama mother who led a double life has been arrested and charged with her murder.
On Thursday, Feb. 22, Jeff West, a 44-year-old former military policeman and campus security guard, was arrested and charged in connection to the January murder of his wife, Kathleen West, 42, the Daily Mail reports.
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Kathleen West’s body was discovered by a neighbor lying face down in the street outside of her home on the morning of Jan. 13. She was partially clothed, her cellphone was lying beside her, and an empty bottle of absinthe was placed on top of it. The cause of West’s death was ruled to be blunt force trauma to the head.
Neighbors reported that West’s husband showed little emotion upon learning of his wife’s murder, putting out his cigarette before going back into the house.
In the days and weeks that followed West’s murder, residents of Calera, Alabama, which averages one homicide a year, grew frustrated with the lack of details from authorities and no arrest.
“I saw one officer searching Kat’s yard with a flashlight – that was about it. The general consensus is everyone wants answers. We are all a little nervous, we are on edge: do we have a killer in neighborhood? Is he going to strike again,” Kevin Wachs said. “I don’t know if the police are in over their heads, or if they don’t know what they’re doing, or if it’s a cover up. If they just said they had a person that would settle everybody down.”
The lack of information from authorities, along with their seeming lack of any leads or investigation into the case, led to several Facebook groups being created in which locals “web sleuths” posted images of West’s every movements speculating that he had murdered his wife after discovering her secret life as an online seductress. Other reports suggest that West was aware of his wife’s double life, which included her running a subscription-only website where she went by the name Kitty Kat West.
It is not yet clear what led officers to make West’s arrest. He was taken to the Shelby County Jail. It is expected that police will release more information of the charges he faces in the coming days.
