SKOWHEGAN, Maine – A man charged with killing his wife told police he watched her overdose, but an autopsy shows she was shot twice in the head, according to court documents.

Luc Tieman was ordered held without bail Friday after his first court appearance since being charged with murder in the death of 34-year-old Valerie Tieman. Her partially buried body was found Tuesday by cadaver dogs about 200 to 300 yards behind her in-laws’ home in Fairfield.

Luc Tieman, 32, didn’t answer questions from reporters as he left the courthouse. He was arrested in Waterville after spending the night in a motel.

Defence lawyer Stephen Smith said Tieman was an honourably discharged Army veteran who’d served in several combat zones. He said, “We expect that the public will not exercise a rush to judgment.”

Tieman initially told police his wife disappeared Aug. 30 from their parked truck while he was inside a Wal-Mart, but a review of store surveillance video did not show their truck parked outside.

A state police affidavit indicates he changed his story after her body was found, telling investigators she was an addict who overdosed on heroin after he loaded the needle for her. He was romancing another woman around the time his wife disappeared, the affidavit said.

Valerie Tieman was reported missing Sept. 9 by her parents, who live in South Carolina’s Greenville County. The autopsy indicated she was shot twice in the head and “fragments consistent with bullet fragments” were retrieved from her skull, officials said.