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LEBANON — In a phone call to 911 Monday night, Ryan K. Widmer sobbed and told the emergency dispatcher that his 24-year-old wife Sarah had fallen asleep and drowned in their bathtub.

Widmer said he drained the tub and tried to help his wife. Then he called 911 at 10:48 p.m. on Aug. 11. The dispatcher asked Widmer to remove her from the tub in the second-floor bathroom of newlywed couple's Hamilton Twp. home and to try to rescusitate her.

"My wife fell asleep in the bathtub and I think she's dead," Widmer said during the call. "I was downstairs and I just came up here and she was laying face down in the bathtub."

At one point, Widmer had to go downstairs to unlock the front door for the ambulance crew. He returned to the bathroom and, when instructed by the 911 dispatcher to resume performing CPR, Widmer said he wasn't sure he knew how to perform the rescue technique properly.

When medics arrived, they found Sarah Widmer's naked body still in the tub. They transported her to Bethesda Arrow Springs in Lebanon, where she pronounced dead.

Ryan Widmer told the dispatcher that his wife often went to sleep while taking a bath and that he had been watching television for 15 minutes or more before he went upstairs to check on her, according to a recording of their 911 phone conversation.

Authorities tell a different story.

On Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 13, Widmer turned himself in at the Hamilton Twp. Police Department after learning he would be charged with murder. Police and Waren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel say they have evidence indicating that Sarah Widmer's death was violent and not accidental.

Warren County Coroner Russell Uptegrove conducted an autopsy and determined Wednesday that drowning was the cause of death. Evidence Uptegrove found in Sarah Widmer's body prompted the murder charge, authorities said.

Despite Ryan Widmer's statements on the 911 recording that is wife "falls asleep in the bathtub all the time," the coroner's staff found inconsistencies.

"A healthy 24-year-old women doesn't just fall asleep in the bathroom," chief investigator Doyle Burke said Thursday, Aug. 14. "Someone like that doesn't drown without the intervention of another person."

According to court documents filed after the hearing, Sarah Widmer's family requested that her husband be released from jail.

Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel said she met with Sarah Widmer's family Thursday morning and that it would be premature to comment about the case.

Authorities suspect her death was not accidental because Sarah Widmer's body had "trauma that would not be consistent with any accident" and there were signs of the "use of violent force," Hutzel said at a press conference Wednesday evening.

Hutzel and police declined to discuss other details of their investigation.

Widmer's attorney Charlie Rittgers said the couple, married for about six months, were not having trouble and he doesn't understand why police believe her death wasn't accidental, according to the Associated Press.

The Widmers had been married about six months and had no history of domestic violence, Hutzel said. Rittgers said Widmer has no criminal record.

Sarah Widmer worked as a dental technician in Fort Thomas, Ky. Ryan Widmer is a sales manager for the Warren County Convention and Visitor's Bureau.

According to court records, police searched the Widmer's house at 5250 Crested Owl Court in Hamilton Twp., but the search warrant has been sealed in court. The Widmers purchased the home in March 2007 for $192,704. They had no children.