It is a bit of a sobering thought that if dh were to take a rifle and go and shoot his bank manager, the subsequent reporting would almost certainly be about the horrendous loss the victim was to his family, what a lovely man he was and a little about what his background and achievements were.
But if he were to shoot me, then the reporting would probably be about dh, about how lovely everybody always thought him, and eventually (once his guilt was established) with some speculation as to what made him flip, with some general reflections on the sadness of it all, like some ghastly disease that had overtaken our family and hit him particularly badly.
Quite.
I understand what Hurtle is saying. It may have been a forced confession, because that has happened once/twice whatever previously. So it could have happened here, it wouldn't be completely unheard of.
However, it's much more common, and much more likely, that he's just a common garden wife-beater who's killed his wife, as happens twice a week at least.
Pretending that reporting here, in all of these instances of women murdered by their partners, focuses far too much on the suspect/perpetrator's good qualities, rather than those of the victim (woman) is the issue the OP is highlighting here. And the thread shouldn't be derailed into a discussion about all the farfetched reasons why he might be innocent.