The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Esteemed NIH Scientist Crushed Roommate's Skull with Hammer in a Fight Over a Dog The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Esteemed NIH Scientist Crushed Roommate's Skull with Hammer in a Fight Over a Dog

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Esteemed NIH Scientist Crushed Roommate's Skull with Hammer in a Fight Over a Dog


Rockville, Maryland - A longtime scientist from the National Institutes of Health http://www.nih.gov/ is behind bars, accused of trying to kill his female roommate with a hammer. Police say the attack started because of a fight over a dog.

Timothy Oliver, a longtime scientist from the National Institutes of Health is behind bars, accused of trying to kill his female roommate.

On Aug. 4, Timothy Oliver, 68, of Rockville, left his dog, a 3-year-old Maltese, in his roommate’s care while he was at work. Around 9:30 that evening, Oliver received a blitz of frantic phone calls; it was his roommate reporting a car had run over his beloved pet in the condo parking lot.

According to charging documents filed in Montgomery County District Court, that roommate, whom ABC 7 News is not identifying, told bystanders, "He [Oliver] is going to kill me."

Oliver raced to the Metropolitan Emergency Animal Clinic in Rockville, where his roommate had taken the dog. Staff there attempted CPR, but the animal's injuries were too severe for resuscitation. The Maltese died shortly after arriving. Oliver placed the dog's body in a cardboard box and took it back to his condo along 6000 block of California Circle.

Feelings inside the first-floor unit quickly became tense. Oliver's roommate reportedly attempted to explain what had happened, prompting Oliver to start pacing around the condo. Oliver then allegedly retrieved a hammer from the kitchen, stormed toward his roommate, and hit her repeatedly in the head with the blunt-force object, cracking her skull.

"Are you serious? Oh my God! I didn't know that," neighbor Leila Neza said.
Following the attack, Oliver allegedly kicked his roommate out of his unit, leaving her unconscious on the sidewalk with a depressed skull fracture.

"It’s hard for me to believe,” said Mary Krause, who lives directly next door. "His action went from bad to worse. You don't attack somebody over something like that."





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