A paramedic has been charged with poisoning his wife with eye drops to collect a $250,000 life insurance payout
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A paramedic in North Carolina has been charged with first-degree murder for allegedly using eye drops to cause his wife's death and collecting $250,000 from her two life insurance policies.
The 35-year-old paramedic, Joshua Hunsucker, allegedly used eye drops with "30 to 40 times higher than the therapeutic level" of tetrahydrozoline, a chemical normally found in eye drops, to kill his wife on September 23, 2018.
Jordan Green, a fraud investigations attorney at the North Carolina Department of Insurance, said in court Thursday that such amounts would "cause heart stoppage in a short amount of time." Hunsucker's wife, Stacy Hunsucker, was hospitalized but "eventually succumbed," Green said.
Joshua Hunsucker collected the money from his wife Stacy's insurance policies, according to the Shelby Star. But he did not permit an autopsy, he said in an affidavit. The abnormal levels of tetrahydrozoline in her blood were found in a blood sample that was preserved as part of her wish to make an organ donation, according to the Star.
Green investigated Stacy Hunsucker's death after her mother, Suzie Robinson, alleged that Joshua Hunsucker committed insurance fraud. Robinson believed he was having an affair prior to his wife's death with another woman who he openly began a relationship with several months later.
Stacy Hunsucker had suffered from heart problems for several years, receiving a pacemaker in February 2015. A GoFundMe page they set up in early 2015 to assist with medical and home expenses, The Josh and Stacy Hunsucker Medical Fund, received only half of its $20,000 goal.
Hunsucker's bond was set at $1.5 million and he will be monitored with a GPS device if he makes bail, a judge ruled. The next hearing in his case is set for January 9.
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