Cops: Husband’s drug use led to wife’s death

Titusville police say he fatally stabbed her during an argument

In horrific detail, Titusville police outlined the last moments of 51-year-old Lori Upthegrove’s life, from a violent argument with her husband to being stabbed and later left in a patch of tall grass in the woods.

The information comes as Tim Allen Upthegrove, 53, remains jailed without bond on a seconddegree murder charge in connection with the death of his wife. Her severely decomposed body was discovered Christmas Eve near a storage facility off of Bobbi Lane where Upthegrove worked, a year after the couple married.

On Wednesday, family and friends remembered Lori Upthegrove during a candlelight vigil at Lori Wilson Park.

It was friends and family who reported Lori Upthegrove missing Dec. 19, prompting a six-day search and raising questions about her husband, police said.

By the weekend, Tim Upthegrove was already in jail on other charges — including obstructing justice and child neglect for abandoning his 8-year-old daughter at a hotel, police said.

After talking with detectives, he was cooperating with police, eventually offering information that led to the location of his wife’s body.

From there, police began to piece together details of a troubled marriage that included domestic violence.

“It was very apparent that [she] and her husband had a fight. Evidence has proven that that physical fight led to Lori’s [death],” Titusville Police Chief John Lau said during a press briefing Sunday, hours after detectives found her remains in the woods.

Detectives think Tim Upthegrove had spent the night driving around in his wife’s 2003 Isuzu Rodeo, buying and smoking crack cocaine.

He returned home and got into an argument with his wife about being out all evening using drugs. At some point, Lori Upthegrove told her husband she would leave him and tried to walk into the garage.

He knocked a water glass out of her hand, Officer Austin Reed wrote in his report.

A struggle ensued, with Tim Upthegrove stabbing his wife. He then threw her hard onto the garage floor, police reported.

The husband then put Lori’s body in the back of her Isuzu and placed her in a patch of tall grass on the west side of the storage facility, authorities said.

Tim Upthegrove appeared in court Christmas Day. A judge ordered him held without bond.

TITUSVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT Police say Lori Upthegrove, 51, of Titusville, was fatally stabbed by husband Tim Upthegrove, 53, during a fight about his drug use. Her severely decomposed body was found Christmas Eve near a storage facility.