Amy Hogg is accused of killing Stephen McCarty and injuring his wife after an overnight gathering at the couple’s Florida home.

REDDICK, Fla. — A desperate 911 call from a Marion County home captured part of the confrontation that authorities say ended with 39-year-old Stephen McCarty dead, his wife injured and a longtime friend facing second-degree murder and aggravated battery charges. Investigators say Amy Hogg, 33, continued attacking McCarty as his wife pleaded for help and tried to stop her.

The recording has become one of the clearest pieces of publicly reported evidence in the Sept. 19 case. McCarty’s wife told the dispatcher that Hogg was trying to stab him again while she attempted to restrain Hogg’s hand, according to audio later obtained and reported by WCJB. The call was already underway when the situation inside the home was still unfolding, giving emergency operators a contemporaneous account rather than one reconstructed only after deputies arrived. Hogg has been charged, not convicted, and the allegations against her remain subject to court proceedings.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were dispatched at about 3:15 a.m. to a residence on West Highway 318 in the Reddick-Flemington area. They found McCarty suffering from multiple wounds and detained Hogg at the scene. Deputies and emergency medical personnel attempted to help McCarty, but he died at the residence. The surviving woman also had been injured during the confrontation. Authorities initially withheld McCarty’s name, and local reporting identified him publicly later in September. Investigators described the case from the outset as a homicide investigation.

The violence followed what had begun as an evening among people who knew one another well, according to the arrest report. Hogg had come to stay with the couple, and accounts from investigators say the group ate dinner, consumed alcohol and spent time playing a game. The arrest affidavit cited by Law&Crime described food that included jalapeño poppers, cheese sticks and chicken wings. Those details are significant mainly because they show the ordinary setting that preceded the confrontation: Hogg was not described as a stranger entering the house, but as a friend welcomed into the couple’s home.

According to investigators, an argument later developed between Hogg and McCarty’s wife. Hogg allegedly accused the woman of having had a relationship with Hogg’s boyfriend. The allegation has not been independently established as true, and authorities have presented it as part of the dispute described by witnesses and captured in the arrest report. The confrontation became physical when Hogg allegedly pushed the woman, deputies said. McCarty then stepped between them and separated the two women, an intervention that temporarily moved his wife away from the immediate argument.

McCarty’s wife went outside, according to investigators, but the conflict did not end. She later heard Hogg and McCarty arguing and called 911. When she went back inside, she found McCarty on the floor, bleeding and struggling to breathe, the arrest report says. Her call to emergency dispatchers then shifted from reporting an argument to describing an active attack. The subsequent audio, released after the initial arrest reports, captured her efforts to keep Hogg from continuing to hurt McCarty while also warning the dispatcher that Hogg was trying to attack her.

At one point, McCarty’s wife told the operator, “She’s trying to stab him more,” according to the released audio. Investigators say Hogg also made threatening and taunting remarks that could be heard during the call. Law&Crime, citing the probable cause affidavit, reported that Hogg said, “Yeah he’s done” after McCarty became unresponsive. Authorities have characterized Hogg’s comments as mocking the wife’s pleas. The recording does not by itself resolve every factual or legal question in the case, but it gives investigators an audio record of a critical portion of the encounter and of the surviving woman’s attempts to intervene.

The struggle eventually centered on control of the knife. McCarty’s wife fought with Hogg and succeeded in disarming her before deputies arrived, according to the sheriff’s office and the arrest report. Ocala-News, citing the report, said the woman suffered an injury to her forearm during that struggle and forced Hogg to release the weapon by striking Hogg’s hand against a kitchen cabinet. Other reports from the sheriff’s office said Marion County Fire Rescue treated the surviving woman at the scene. Authorities have not publicly released extensive information about the longer-term effects of her injury.

Hogg was taken into custody at the residence and transported to a hospital for treatment before being medically cleared and booked into the Marion County Jail. The sheriff’s office charged her with second-degree murder in McCarty’s death and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon in the alleged attack on his wife. Under Florida law, second-degree murder includes an unlawful killing committed through an act imminently dangerous to another person and showing a depraved mind regardless of human life, without a premeditated design to kill a particular person. The statutory definition does not establish that Hogg committed the offense; prosecutors would have to prove the elements of the charge in court.

The aggravated battery count concerns the surviving woman rather than McCarty. Florida law provides that aggravated battery can include a battery committed with a deadly weapon. Public accounts of the arrest say the wife was injured while trying to disarm Hogg. The two charges therefore address separate alleged harm arising from the same confrontation. Reporting shortly after the arrest said Hogg was being held without bond. No plea, trial result or adjudication establishing guilt was identified in the public reports reviewed for this story.

McCarty’s identity added another detail to a case that initially was reported without his name. WCJB later identified him as 39 and reported that authorities said Hogg killed him during the argument at his home. Law&Crime reported that McCarty had retired from the U.S. Army in 2023. The available reports do not provide a fuller account of his military service or disclose extensive biographical information, and those gaps should not be filled by assumption. The surviving woman has generally remained unnamed in the reporting reviewed, consistent with treating her as a private victim rather than making her identity central to the criminal allegations.

The case also illustrates why the sequence documented by the 911 call is likely to remain important as the prosecution proceeds. Investigators have a surviving eyewitness who was inside the home, a recording made during part of the confrontation and physical evidence gathered at the scene. At the same time, the public record reviewed does not establish what Hogg may ultimately say in response to the allegations, what defenses may be raised, or how prosecutors will present the evidence in court. The accusation concerning a possible affair appears in the investigative account as a reported trigger for the argument, not as a proven motive or established fact about the surviving woman.

The 911 recording now stands as one of the most direct public records of the final minutes inside the home, but it is only part of the evidence that may be tested as the case moves through court. The sources reviewed do not identify a final disposition or later adjudication. Hogg therefore remains accused of second-degree murder and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon in McCarty’s death and the injuries to his wife.

Author note: Last updated November 7, 2026.