Man arrested after woman found dead in Napoleon home

Katie Nagel, left, and her fiance, Michael Peddicord, 22. Peddicord is accused of stabbing Katie Nagel, 19, multiple times, apparently causing her death on Jan. 16 in Napoleon, Ohio.

NAPOLEON — A Napoleon man was charged Monday with aggravated murder after police said he stabbed and killed his 19-year-old fiancee.

Napoleon police Chief Bob Weitzel said authorities received a call from Michael Curtis Peddicord, 22, at 11:57 a.m. Monday stating that Kaitlyn Nagel was dead. Mr. Peddicord and Ms. Nagel lived at the same address where police found her body in a bedroom.

Police said Ms. Nagel, 19, had apparently been stabbed multiple times. Her body was taken to the Lucas County Coroner’s Office for an autopsy, which is scheduled for Tuesday. Mr. Peddicord was being held in the Correctional Center of Northwest Ohio in Stryker, authorities said.

According to Mr. Peddicord’s Facebook page, the two started dating in April and were engaged in November.

Sometime shortly before noon Monday, Mr. Peddicord posted to his Facebook page “I Love You Katie Nagel.”

Miss Nagel was the only person to “like” the status; she also wrote under the posting that she loved him, too.

Kristin Perez, 19, of Marion, Ind., said she was shocked to learn of the death of a friend she’d been close to since fifth grade in Napoleon.

Ms. Perez said she’d sent Ms. Nagel a text message earlier in the day to share the news that she’d just learned from her doctor that she was seven to eight weeks pregnant with her second child.

She learned about her friend’s death on Facebook, and Ms. Perez’s mother, who worked with Ms. Nagel at Wendy’s, confirmed the news.

“She was there when I had my first son. She was one of my best friends who supported me,” Ms. Perez said.

Ms. Perez said her friend tried to persuade her to return to Ohio to live, but she told Ms. Nagel she’d just enrolled in classes in Marion and didn’t want to leave.

“She texted me a couple of days ago saying “I want you to come back to Ohio’,” Ms. Perez said.

She described her friend as an outgoing person who enjoyed attending concerts.

“It was never boring with her,” Ms. Perez said. “It was like she was always on speed, but that was her natural personality.”

Ms. Perez said she moved to Indiana when she was a freshman, but remained in close contact with Ms. Nagel, frequently traveling back to Napoleon. She considered Ms. Nagel’s parents as her second parents.

Ms. Perez said Ms. Nagel told her that she and Mr. Peddicord had split up after their engagement, but got back together this past weekend.