Husband Confessed To Killing Wife In South Windsor: Warrant

SOUTH WINDSOR, CT — A 15-page arrest warrant application contains various stories told to police by Tahj Hutchinson about the disappearance of his wife, Jessica Edwards, culminating in his eventual confession of how he caused her death inside their South Windsor condominium, then disposed of her body.

Hutchinson, 22, was charged Friday night with first-degree manslaughter, and was held over the weekend in lieu of $1 million bond. He was scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Manchester Superior Court.

The warrant, prepared by officer Daniel Cain and released Monday morning by South Windsor police, indicates Edwards, 30, and Hutchinson had argued most of Mother's Day weekend, and continued into the morning of Monday, May 10, when the dispute turned physical. Hutchinson said Edwards struck him in the head with a laptop, then grabbed a kitchen knife.

The couple "wrestled over the knife and he eventually pinned her on the ground on the living room floor." Hutchinson then "was able to flip her over onto her back and was kneeling on her back and neck area with his body weight, holding her down," according to the warrant.

Edwards stopped moving and Hutchinson, who police say stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 172 pounds, got up and went to tend to their 7-month-old son. When he returned to the living room, Edwards was unresponsive, leading Hutchinson to realize "she was not alive," according to the warrant.

Cain wrote, "He left her on the floor for the day and tended to his son throughout the day and evening, while her family was calling him looking to locate her. He stated that later that night, he backed his Jeep up to his door, loaded her body in the rear of it and left when the family came over."

Edwards' body was located Friday morning in a heavily wooded area south of a cul-de-sac on Driver Road in East Hartford, near the Hockanum River Reservoir. The area contains "several walking paths and muddy marsh type areas," according to the warrant.

Analysis of video footage from a nearby home shows a sport utility vehicle "consistent with Tahj's Jeep traveling south on Driver Rd. towards the cul-de-sac" at 10:54 p.m., then leaving in the opposite direction at 11:06 p.m. Cell phone evidence confirmed Hutchinson's phone used a tower in the area from 10:57 p.m. to 11:07 p.m., and he was then tracked to the East Hartford Police Department, where he arrived at 11:14 without his shoes, which he later admitted "were covered in mud," according to the warrant.

Police said Edwards' sister reported finding divorce papers in the condo, and that Hutchinson appeared "visibly unemotional about the disappearance of his wife" when questioned by officers, according to the warrant.

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