A GoFundMe online fundraiser has been created to help the family of a Columbus woman who police found dead Monday night in a local residence from multiple gunshot wounds.
The fundraiser, organized by Morgan Ping of Columbus, seeks to “relieve some of the stress of paying for a funeral” for Julie Anne Schmidtke, 36, who was identified Tuesday by the Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office as the victim of a Monday evening shooting at 2272 Sumpter Court. Her estranged husband, Charles W. Schmidtke, 41, also was found dead at the scene from a single gunshot wound to the head.
The GoFundMe page, which uses Schmidtke’s last name prior to marriage, Neumann, includes a picture of her with her two children. As of 3 p.m. Wednesday, the fundraiser had raised $6,442.
“We are all in shock. We are all devastated. We are at a loss for words. We are hurt. We are confused. We are angry. I’m hoping we can all come together to relieve some of the stress of paying for a funeral for the family,” Ping said on the fundraiser’s website. “…Pray for the family, pray for the boys, pray for peace.”
Prior to her death, Schmidtke had been working for the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. for the past year-and-a-half and was based out of Parkside Elementary School, BCSC officials said. She had worked for school corporation as an early childhood teaching assistant and had done work with the Busy Bees program. This year, Schmidtke was a special education teaching assistant.
“(The fundraiser) is hopefully going to benefit the family during this tragic and horrific time, and I’m hoping that we meet our goal and even surpass it,” Ping, one of Schmidtke’s friends, told The Republic on Wednesday. “If we were to surpass the goal, I had hoped that the rest of the money would go to her her boys.”
On Tuesday morning, Columbus police said they were conducting a death investigation after officers responded to a call at approximately 8:55 p.m. Monday of a reported shooting at a residence in the 2200 block of Sumpter Court.
The Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office said in a press release later on Tuesday that Columbus Police Department officers investigated after receiving a report that Schmidtke’s estranged husband, Charles, had entered the residence and possibly shot her. Detectives believe that there was an argument inside the home involving two people prior to the shooting, police said.
Officers entered the residence Monday evening and found the couple dead with apparent gunshot wounds, police said.
“Julie was found to have multiple gunshot wounds to her body and Charles died from a single gunshot to the head. The investigation is ongoing,” the coroner’s office said. “The lead investigating agency is Columbus Police Department.”
On Wednesday, Columbus police declined to describe the shooting deaths as a murder-suicide, sayig that the investigation is still ongoing.
“Our detectives have been working non-stop for the last 40 hours processing evidence and working to determine exactly what happened on Monday night,” said CPD spokesman Lt. Matt Harris. “Their work is ongoing. Based upon our investigation so far, we still believe there is no additional threat to the community as a result of this incident. We are not, however, going to jump to conclusions and make assumptions before our investigation is complete. Detectives have been working in collaboration with the coroner’s office and will continue to do so.”
According to public records, the couple was in the process of divorcing.
According to online court records, Julie Schmidtke filed a petition for dissolution of marriage Dec. 14 in Bartholomew Superior Court 1. Charles’ address on that court filing is listed in Greencastle. A hearing in the case had been scheduled for Jan. 5.
A marriage license for Julie A. Neumann and Charles W. Schmidtke was issued in April of this year in Bartholomew County, public records show.
“She was an extremely bright, energetic, one-of-a-kind person,” Ping said. “She was extremely, extremely genuine, very kind, very soft-hearted, but she was so independent. She could do anything she wanted in the entire world. She loved outdoors, she loved craft, art, poetry. But most importantly, she really, really loved her boys, and they were her world.”
