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Sheriff: Palm Coast man choked, fatally bludgeoned ex-wife

A 46-year-old man was arrested Monday evening after investigators said he choked his 44-year-old ex-wife and beat her to death with a weapon, Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said.
Michael Cummings is charged with second-degree murder for killing his ex-wife, Faith Cummings, whose body was discovered Thursday morning in their Palm Coast home, Staly said.
An autopsy ruled Faith Cummings' death a homicide and determined that she had been bludgeoned with an unspecified weapon, officials said.
Deputies said Michael Cummings called 911 to report that his ex-wife had fallen in a bathtub and that he spent hours performing CPR on her.

FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. — "What time did you start CPR, and why didn't you call us sooner?" the dispatcher said.

"Because I can't, man," Michael Cummings said. "I don't know. Oh, my God."

Michael Cummings was first arrested Thursday on an obstruction of justice charge because he refused to leave his home so detectives could investigate his ex-wife's death, deputies said.
"I didn't kill her," Cummings told Channel 9 Monday while he was being taken to jail again. "I love my family. I always have. I protect the family."
Investigators said they discovered Faith Cummings' body lying on a bed in a spare bedroom, where blood was splattered. There were signs of a struggle, they said.
The woman's face and body were badly bruised and her bones were broken, deputies said.
Investigators said the pair was trying to rekindle their relationship, but they had gotten into a fight in the garage over accusations of infidelity.
"There had been an obvious attempt to clean up the crime scene and reposition the body," Staly said. "He attempted to find out what we knew and then tried to fit his story to what evidence he thought we had."
Michael Cummings was booked into the Flagler County Detention Center, where he's being jailed without bail.
Investigators said another person might have helped him clean the crime scene.