The 44-year-old Seymour man charged with murder in the Sept. 7 death of his 19-year-old fiancée brutally beat her from nearly head to toe, police report.

Brian Michael Cogdill was arrested Sept. 10, three days after Emma Jean Jamison died at Schneck Medical Center in Seymour, where she was taken after being found battered at the home she shared with Cogdill on the city’s far north side.

Jamison sustained a severe laceration to her head that incapacitated her, a broken jaw and bruising all over her body, according to a probable cause affidavit filed Monday by Jackson County Sheriff’s Department Detective Tom Barker.

Evidence gathered during the investigation, which included multiple interviews, has led police to believe Cogdill beat Jamison for a variety of reasons. Those reasons include his belief she was having an affair, using drugs and stole $300 he had saved for new dentures.

Dr. Thomas Sozio, a forensic pathologist, conducted an autopsy Sept. 8, and his preliminary report indicated Jamison’s death was a homicide, describing her injuries as “brutal,” according to court documents.

The incident that led to her death took place at the home Cogdill and Jamison shared at 6556 N. County Road 760E near the East Fork White River south of the Indiana American Water Co.

Police initially were called to that home to investigate a report of an overdose at 6:46 p.m. Sept. 6, according to police records.

County Officer Brad Barker, who was among the first to arrive, spoke with Cogdill, who said Jamison overdosed.

Barker, however, called detectives because he did not believe the injuries were consistent with an overdose.

Cogdill later told police Jamison left their house for hours following an argument and returned home injured, and he believed someone selling drugs to her caused the injuries.

According to court records, Sozio said Jamison’s head injury would have prevented her from walking once she had received it, forcing law enforcement to question how she would have received that kind of injury and make her way back home.

Tom Barker said Cogdill’s right hand appeared to be swollen in comparison to his left hand during an interview at Schneck Medical Center.

During that interview, Cogdill told police he had been trying to help her recover before he called 911.

He also agreed to a search of his cellphone and submitting DNA samples.

Cogdill’s initial appearance before Jackson Circuit Court Judge Richard W. Poynter had not been scheduled as of press time Monday.

He has been held without bond at the Jackson County Jail in Brownstown since his arrest and does not have an attorney listed.

Cogdill has a history of plea agreements that stem from incidents involving violence and firearms.

He has pleaded guilty in at least two felony cases in Jackson Circuit Court.

On Jan. 7, 1994, Cogdill was sentenced by former Jackson Circuit Court Judge William Vance to three years of probation after pleading guilty to a Class D felony charge of criminal recklessness.

Cogdill had been charged with a Class A felony of attempted murder after he fired a shotgun at a man’s truck after an altercation at his mother’s house. The attempted murder charge was dropped as part of the plea deal.

During that incident, the shot fired by Cogdill went through the truck’s back window, and a slug struck a door post on the vehicle close to the head of the driver, according to court documents. The other man involved in that incident also received 180 days of probation after pleading guilty to possession of a handgun.

In the second incident, Vance sentenced Cogdill to one and a half years of probation and required him to participate in anger management classes as part of a plea agreement of a Class D felony charge of pointing a firearm. That sentencing was handed down Sept. 12, 2006.

That agreement stemmed from an incident in which Cogdill pointed a loaded shotgun at family members during an argument. Cogdill also fired the weapon close to one of the family members, according to a probable cause affidavit signed by county Officer Rob Henley filed Dec. 27, 2004.

He was released from probation on that case in March 2008.