A Butler County woman has been charged with homicide after she castrated her 40-year-old husband, possibly at his insistence, in a crude operation in their Harrisville-area trailer, authorities said Tuesday.

Tammy L. Felbaum, 42, of 318 Smith Road, Marion Township, was charged at the Butler County Jail with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person and practicing medicine without a license.

Butler County District Attorney Tim McCune said at a news conference Tuesday that police responded to the Felbaum residence at 3:52 a.m. Feb. 25 to a call of a possible drug overdose; the victim was James John Felbaum.

McCune said Mrs. Felbaum made the 911 call from the couple’s home.

Felbaum was pronounced dead at United Community Hospital, Pine Township, of an apparent drug overdose.

Felbaum had been castrated prior to the 911 call, possibly a couple of days earlier, said state police Sgt. Ted Swartzlander.

Police found a document in the home, signed by Felbaum, giving his wife permission to perform the castration, McCune said. Neither he nor police would comment on the authenticity of the note.

McCune said Mrs. Felbaum told police her husband had started the procedure on himself but asked her to finish because it was not being performed properly. Dr. Karl Williams, a pathologist from Ellwood City Hospital who examined the body, said it was "highly unlikely" Felbaum performed the procedure on himself.

Neighbor Susan Badaracco said Felbaum "would never undergo that sort of procedure voluntarily."

"The thing is, Jim couldn’t stand the sight of blood. He passed out at the first sight of blood," she said, recalling an instance when Felbaum became queasy after cutting his finger doing yard work. "He couldn’t do something like that."

According to McCune, Mrs. Felbaum told police she had performed a similar procedure on herself years ago and had undergone a professional sex-change operation from male to female, maybe as long as 20 years ago.

According to court documents:

On Feb. 22, Felbaum left a halfway house where he had been for six days since being released from a drug-rehabilitation unit.

A man who knew Felbaum had gone to the trailer at about 7 p.m. Feb. 23 to ask about buying a van. While in the home, the man told police he saw Felbaum in bed and stitches on his genitals.

The man offered to take him to the hospital, but Felbaum refused, saying he couldn’t afford it.

On March 4 preliminary toxicology reports show Felbaum had a number of drugs in his system, but not a lethal dose of any of them.

On March 5 a coroner’s report revealed Felbaum had "undergone a nonprofessional" castration.

On March 7 and 8 police searched the Felbaums’ mobile home and found a large amount of blood-soaked bandages, bedding and clothing, along with a large amount of surgical paraphernalia, including scalpels, sutures and forceps, plus books on human anatomy, drugs and medical procedures.

"Two rooms of the mobile home had been converted into a makeshift laboratory, complete with an examination table, two incubators, a defibrillator and several other pieces of medical equipment," McCune said.

On Monday Williams found the painkiller Oxycodone in Felbaum’s system. Williams said the amount was not lethal but would have caused Felbaum to lose his gag reflex and suffocate on his own vomit.

Mrs. Felbaum had a prescription for 60 20-milligram pills of the painkiller. The empty container was found at the scene.

Police said they also found a number of animals at the Felbaum home, including cats, a dog and birds -- some dead, some alive. Police said there was no running water or heat and human and animal feces and urine, along with "an overwhelming stench" were throughout the trailer.

McCune said authorities have no indication that Mrs. Felbaum ever had any medical training. Though it was initially reported Mrs. Felbaum was a taxidermist, McCune said she has no license through the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

Swartzlander said several boxes containing animal corpses were dug up from the Felbaums’ back yard.

The Humane Society of Clarion charged Mrs. Felbaum with cruelty to animals. A humane agent also at the news conference said several small animals preserved in jars were found in the home.

Swartzlander said police had been called to the home on various occasions because of complaints from neighbors about the couple and because crimes were committed against the Felbaums. He did not elaborate on what those crimes were.

McCune said police are interviewing Mrs. Felbaum’s five previous husbands, but do not believe she had an accomplice.

Mrs. Felbaum is being held without bond in the Cambria County Jail due to overcrowding in the Butler County Jail. Her preliminary hearing is set for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday before District Justice Clifford J. Woessner, Slippery Rock.

McCune said Mrs. Felbaum will face charges either of involuntary manslaughter or third-degree murder -- murder without premeditation. If convicted of third-degree murder Mrs. Felbaum could face 20 to 40 years in prison, he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.