STOVER, Mo. (AP) – Authorities are investigating the death of a 79-year-old Missouri man as a homicide.

The Morgan County Sheriff’s Office says in a news release that officers were responding Sunday to a 911 call from a man about an ongoing assault on his wife. The man was not at the location of the assault in Stover.

The News Tribune reports that deputies could hear a distraught woman when they arrived at the residence and forced their way in. They found a man unresponsive on the floor and a woman in authorities describe as an “hysterical state” in an adjacent room.

Thomas Chandler of Stover was pronounced dead after deputies and EMS personnel attempted life-saving procedures.

The woman was transported to a local hospital and later released.