Doctor strangled wife and hid her body in a pond

Kathleen McLean was keen to give her marriage another try, but there was a final argument with Ingolf Tuerk that would seal her fate

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After finding love later in life, Kathleen McLean and Dr Ingolf Tuerk were newlyweds living in a $2.4 million home in Dover, Massachusetts, with some of their children. The couple had met on an online dating app in November 2017 and had married two years later at a drive-thru wedding chapel in Las Vegas. Tuerk was a renowned urologist who specialised in robotic surgery. He was chief of urology at St Elizabeth’s Medical Center and highly respected in his field. German-born Tuerk, who had the nickname Harry, was charismatic and would turn up to work on his Harley-Davidson. He was also competitive and

had once been a member of the East German Olympic decathlon team in the 1980s, but he quit in favour of studying medicine at university. Kathleen, 45, was Tuerk’s third wife and they both had children from previous relationships - Tuerk had two and Kathleen had three. Kathleen ran Birch Tree Energy and Healing, an alternative healing service, and was passionate about helping people.

Couple in crisis

By 2020, the couple were already in crisis. Tuerk’s career was in chaos after he was accused of falsely billing the government for surgeries that never happened. He agreed to pay £150,000 as part of a settlement and stopped working at the hospital.

Tuerk and Kathleen’s marriage was also strained. A few weeks after their Vegas wedding, Tuerk had gone to see a divorce lawyer, seemingly regretting their decision to marry. He would later say he was drunk and didn't really remember the wedding. When Kathleen found out from seeing it on his phone, she was devastated. They were having arguments and the arguments were escalating.