FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- When investigators found Cheri A. Stewart's body in her home, it was in "an advanced stage of decomposition," according to the statement of probable cause.

The body was found lying, face-up, in the bathroom, just steps away from the blood-stained living room and near the bedroom where her husband lay, alive.

Kermit M. Stewart, a.k.a. Michael K. Stewart, told police his wife had been dead for five days. He said he didn't alert authorities because "it looked like he 'beat the hell out of her,'" the document said.

"I pushed her and she cut her lip, and we had a DV (assault charge) three years ago," he told detectives.

Kermit Stewart said he and his wife got into an argument on Tuesday, June 16. She began throwing things at him and told him "she wanted to be with their dead dogs," according to the statement.

He said he then grabbed his 63-year-old wife and flung her to the ground, causing her to hit her face. He also kicked her in the buttocks, he told investigators.

Cheri Stewart began bleeding heavily but carried on, smoking cigarettes and sipping from a wine glass, her husband said. Kermit Stewart added wife had been on a blood thinner ever since she suffered a heart attack three years earlier and as a result, was at risk of bleeding to death even from a minor injury.

The 63-year-old man said as she sat,