The ex-husband of the 69-year-old bartender who was found dead last week in her Lutherville home was charged with her murder, police said.

Karl Geiger, who also goes by Danny, was charged with first-degree murder of Patricia Watson-Geiger, according to a post from Baltimore County Police. Police found Watson-Geiger dead in her home on the 1200 block of Oakcroft Drive on the evening Sept. 15.

Geiger is being held at the Baltimore County Detention Center.

An autopsy found that Watson-Geiger died from two gunshot wounds, according to court documents.

In an interview with The Banner on Sept. 16, Karl Geiger, who was married to Watson-Geiger for 30 years, said he had been living with his ex-wife and found her unresponsive in her bed after coming home from work around 8:30 pm. He said he called 911 after finding her. Geiger said he didn’t know his ex-wife had been shot until after the police told him.

When he arrived to the home last Monday, Karl Geiger told The Banner that the lights were out and the contents of Watson-Geiger’s purse were scattered around the kitchen. The drawers in the home were opened, with clothes and items dispersed on the floor, he said.

Karl Geiger told detectives a similar story on Monday evening during a police interview at the Baltimore County Police Headquarters, according to the statement of probable cause.

But officers said when they arrived to the scene, they found valuable items, like jewelry, in plain view, and a flat-screen television placed on the floor, according to the court documents. While things were dispersed, no items were reported missing from the house, according to the charging documents.

“The crime scene has the appearance of a staged burglary with no items being identified by the defendant as being stolen,” the documents said.

While Karl Geiger told police he had left for work at 7:30 a.m. that morning, detectives, using surveillance footage and phone records, confirmed that he likely left the home around 8:15 am.

In footage they found from a nearby residence’s camera, police said in the charging documents that a gunshot is heard around 7:58 a.m. A witness interviewed by police said that they heard a gunshot between 8 and 8:30 a.m. while walking their dog.

Another person told police that Karl Geiger had revealed to them that Watson-Geiger was shot in the head. But detectives said that they never shared with Karl Geiger where the victim was shot, the court documents said. About a week later, Karl Geiger told police in a follow-up interview that he still didn’t know where she was shot.

Karl Geiger told The Banner last week that Watson-Geiger was his “best friend” and that the two had remained friends after their divorce in 2019.

Watson-Geiger was a bartender at several bars and restaurants in the Towson area. She had three children, including one who died from cancer.

The two lived in a tree-lined suburban neighborhood near the Hampton Elementary School.

This article has been updated.