BY OSABUOHIEN VIVIAN ROSE
A Nigerian professor, Chukwudubem Okafor, of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, United States, fatally shot his Jamaican wife, Cheryl, before taking his own life in what authorities have classified as a murder-suicide.
Detective Joel Vonnille of the Berks County Coroner’s Office in Pennsylvania confirmed that the investigation into the tragic incident has been concluded.
Okafor and his 37-year-old wife, Cheryl, resided in Exeter Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, and were parents to four children.
“The investigation is closed and the manner of death of Mr. Okafor was ruled as a suicide and the death of his wife a homicide, he shot her and then shot himself.
“The motive (for the killing) is that they had marital problems and this was domestic dispute,” Vanilla said.
He stated that Okafor, 64, devastated by his wife’s departure just days earlier, arranged to meet her at a relative’s home on Pear Street in Reading. There, he shot her multiple times before turning the gun on himself, firing a single fatal shot to his head.
“A small-calibre handgun was found near the bodies,” the police said.
A close friend of the couple described them as talented artists who dedicated much of their time to supporting children in Berks County.
“They were both very talented and they were making a tremendous contribution to the community, ”Joseph Amprey, a retired Kutztown University professor, said of Chukwudubem and his wife.
The investigation also revealed that Cheryl’s marriage to Okafor was the second to end in violence.
According to the report, after leaving her first husband, Alfred Simon Philmore, in the early 1990s, he tracked her down in 1998 and fatally shot her boyfriend, Osmond Dacosta Walker, in Reading.
Philmore was convicted of the crime in 1999 and is currently serving his sentence in a state prison in Fayette County.
Okafor, known as “Dubem” among friends, was an English professor at Kutztown University and a poet.
University spokesperson Matt Santo stated that Okafor had been teaching at Kutztown since 1995 and was on a sabbatical, with plans to resume duty March.
