Police Officer Charged With Killing Wife, Concocting Alibi

Police Officer Carl Selby said he knew who killed his wife. He even gave colleagues a suspect and a motive.

Authorities said he was wrong.

Selby was arrested Thursday in his patrol car for drunken driving, hours after police confirmed that he would be charged with shooting his wife twice in the head as she slept.

The officer knew his wife, Pamela, was about to leave him because he was having an affair, prosecutor Lynne Abraham said.

Selby, 36, denies killing his wife and sending himself threatening letters to make it appear someone he had arrested was to blame. He has been on sick leave since his wife was slain Dec. 22 in their bedroom as their 6-year-old daughter slept nearby.

Selby told investigators he was away from home at the time of the murder, driving a relative to work, and discovered his 35-year-old wife’s body when he returned.

The seven-year department veteran, described by his superiors as a satisfactory worker, wrote anonymous letters in longhand and on an office computer or typewriter, Abraham said.

The writer said he was upset about being arrested by Selby. One letter said: “See how you like it without your wife. I may do your daughter, too.”

The letters were mailed or left at the couple’s house, Abraham said.

When officers entered Selby’s home on the night of the murder, Abraham said, they found “Did you get my letter?” scrawled across a wall in Selby’s handwriting.

Investigators said the only gun found in the house was the one believed to be the murder weapon - a police-issued .38-caliber revolver. There were no signs of forced entry and nothing was stolen, authorities said.