Cop Cleared of Murder Charge; Heart Ailment Killed His Wife

A police officer accused of suffocating his wife last year was cleared Wednesday after medical experts determined that the woman died of a rare heart ailment.

“How could I be any happier? Now, we can do what we should have been able to do from day one, which is mourn the passing of my wife,” Officer James Andros III said.

Andros, 34, found the body of his wife, Ellen, 31, when he came home from a night of drinking with friends.

“The people who did this to me, may God forgive them,” he said. “I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure these people are exposed for what they’ve done.”

The 12-year veteran of the Atlantic City Police Department was charged with murder after Assistant Atlantic County Medical Examiner Elliot Gross concluded Ellen Andros had been smothered.

But a forensic expert who reviewed the evidence for defense attorneys concluded that she suffered bleeding in the coronary artery, which closed from the pressure and caused her heart to stop beating. The ailment, spontaneous coronary artery dissection, occurs primarily in young women with no history of heart problems, officials said.

When Gross was shown the findings, he agreed with them and said he would correct Andros’ death certificate, prosecutor Jeffrey Blitz said. A judge dismissed the murder charge Wednesday.