TRENTON - The live-in girlfriend charged Thursday with murdering her boyfriend in their Oak Avenue residence called police Wednesday night and confessed to the crime.
"Hello, I need an officer at 5 Oak Avenue," 42-year-old Joanna Hull calmly told a police dispatcher.
When the dispatcher asked why, Hull responded, "I killed my friend."
Later she said, "I've got my confession all written down."
Hull was booked into the Middletown jail early Thursday on charges of murder, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse in the death of Keith Peyton, 47. Following a court appearance Thursday, she remained in jail on $265,000 bond.
Peyton was found dead inside his Oak Avenue home about 8 p.m., after Hull called 911, Trenton police said.
When officers arrived, she directed them to Peyton's body.
While talking to the dispatcher Wednesday night, Hull said she didn't remember when she killed her boyfriend.
"About a week ago,'' she estimated.
Peyton's body was in the bathtub, she told the dispatcher.
"I just don't remember," Hull said. "I know I killed him. ... I just can't take this anymore."
Hull told the dispatcher that she had tried to kill herself.
"I've been taking a bunch of pills every night trying to kill myself and it's not working," she said.
Hull said she swallowed 45 pills at one point and, "I still woke up."
A Butler County coroner's investigator said Peyton died of blunt force head trauma. Preliminary estimates are Peyton had been dead two to 10 days.
Trenton police Chief Carl Ray said Hull was waiting at the front door when police arrived.
"I think she was just at wits' end and wanted some relief from all of it," he said.
The Associated Press contributed.
