Dennis Lambdin

A phone call from the other side of the country alerted police to a homicide Monday in Cottonwood Heights.

A man in Maryland called Cottonwood Heights police about 10:50 a.m. to say he had received an e-mail from his friend in Utah, claiming he had stabbed his wife.

Police arrived at the duplex on 2192 E. Fort Union Blvd. and knocked for about a minute before Dennis Wayne Lambdin, 60, answered the door. Police found his 41-year-old wife, Touch Choum, stabbed to death inside the home, said Beau Babka of the Cottonwood Heights Police Department.

Lambdin, 60, had wounds on his palm consistent with stabbing someone and having the hand slide down the blade, said Police Chief Robby Russo.

Choum also had been punched and beaten over the head with a heavy snow globe, Babka said.

"There was a lot of rage involved in this particular crime," Babka said.

Police had visited the home twice previously in the past month, Babka said. In one case, friends requested a check but did not explain their concern. In another, Lambdin himself called police during an argument with Choum.

Disputes were "very vocal," Babka said, but "there was nothing physical that we found."

Lambdin was taken to the hospital for stitches and then to the jail, Babka said. He was booked on suspicion of murder.

Babka said Lambdin has a 1995 conviction for sexual assault in Michigan, but he didn't know the details of that case. He also is on

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"lifetime probation" for drug convictions in the late 1980s in Michigan.

Lambdin has an extensive Internet presence in connection to business pursuits as a self-described "network marketer." On Livneasy.blogspot.com, he wrote that his wife's name is Jennifer and they have three children: two daughters and a son. Police confirmed that the woman pictured is Choum.

In 2008 remarks on the blog elfexpressionsezine.com, Lambdin writes that his wife was a refugee from Cambodia who came to the United States when she was 17. They had been together for 8½ years at the time, he wrote.

"I grew up in Michigan and went to the school of hard knocks. I have a masters in people skills," Lambdin wrote.

He stated he was a hotel manager on weekends and a shipping and receiving manager during the week.

His Myspace profile states he is Buddhist.

This is the first homicide investigated by the newly formed Cottonwood Heights Police Department.

ncarlisle@sltrib.com