TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man is charged with killing a woman while they were aboard a cruise ship in January.
Federal prosecutors announced 53-year-old Eric Newman was charged with second-degree murder and made his initial court appearance Thursday.
The indictment alleges the Topeka man and 50-year-old Tamara Tucker, of Lawson, Missouri, were aboard the Carnival Elation, a vessel registered in Panama. The cruise departed and arrived from Jacksonville, Florida.
Tucker’s obituary and a news release from Park University, where she taught, describe Newman as her longtime partner.
Prosecutors say Newman killed Tucker aboard the ship. No further details were released.
Tucker was a full-time faculty member in the social work department at Park University in Parkville, Missouri, from 2012 to 2017. She was an adjunct instructor before that, beginning in 2007.