Dover doctor convicted of voluntary manslaughter in wife’s killing

Crime

Jurors spared Ingolf Tuerk a life sentence for killing Kathleen McLean, convicting him of a lesser charge Thursday.

By Abby Patkin

April 10, 2025 | 4:25 PM

1 minute to read

A Dover doctor was convicted of voluntary manslaughter Thursday after he admitted to strangling his wife in 2020 and dumping her body in a local pond.

Ingolf “Harry” Tuerk, 63, hung his head and wept as the guilty verdict was read aloud in court.

Though Tuerk had been charged with first-degree murder for killing 45-year-old Kathleen McLean, the jury convicted him of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter and spared him a life sentence. He is scheduled for sentencing May 16 and faces up to 20 years in prison.

“I think we are very, very pleased,” Tuerk’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, told WCVB. “The jury obviously put a lot of work into the deliberations. The evidence, I think, was there. They listened to the judge, they applied the law to the facts. We are very satisfied with the verdict and we’ll move on to sentencing.”

Neither Reddington nor the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office immediately responded to requests for comment Thursday afternoon.

Earlier this week, Tuerk testified that he “blacked out” and grabbed McLean by the neck after she allegedly smashed a glass over his head during a drunken altercation at home in May 2020. Married for about five months, the couple had recently reconciled following a turbulent period of estrangement.

While prosecutor Elizabeth McLaughlin painted Tuerk as a “methodical and detail-oriented” cold-blooded killer during her closing argument, Tuerk maintained he did not intend to harm or kill his wife. 

“I didn’t like to cause the death of another human being,” the former St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center urology chief testified. “I spent all my life to save lives. So I was pretty much in shock myself with what happened, yes. I was extremely sorry, and guilty, and shameful about what happened.” 

To hear Reddington tell it, Tuerk acted in self-defense in the heat of the moment. 

“There’s no intent to kill; there’s an intent for self-preservation,” Reddington said, adding, “This is the end of a tragic human story.”

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between. She has been covering the Karen Read murder case.