A preschool trainer turned busy stay-at-home mom to 2 younger daughters, Stacy Hunsucker favored to fill what free time she had with artwork tasks and watching sports activities on TV.
“She did numerous artful issues, like making little painted picket indicators,” says her pal Shellie O’Day, who stopped by the Mount Holly, N.C., house Stacy shared together with her husband, Joshua, a flight paramedic, and their ladies Piper and Willow in the summertime of 2018 to select up a “welcome” signal O’Day bought for $50.
The pair lingered for a couple of minutes, chatting about their lives and plans. “She was making an attempt to lose a little bit little bit of weight, which after having children and being a little bit older will get exhausting,” O’Day recollects. “It was a standard, on a regular basis dialog. She appeared high-quality.”
But, some six weeks later, Stacy’s well being and obvious happiness took a drastic flip for the more severe. On Sept. 23, 2018, Joshua, 40, known as 911 and instructed responding officers he had discovered his 32-year-old spouse “not respiratory and blue” when he returned from going exterior to test that their autos have been locked after listening to of a rash of automotive thefts within the neighborhood.
Stacy was pronounced useless of an obvious coronary heart assault. Outwardly, Joshua appeared subdued by his loss—however his conduct within the days that adopted raised eyebrows. Authorities say Joshua refused to permit a coroner to carry out an post-mortem, stating that he didn’t need his spouse “to be minimize up,” although Stacy had registered to be an organ donor. Inside two days, Stacy’s physique was cremated, and Joshua filed a declare for her $250,000 life insurance coverage coverage.
Stacy Hunsucker and her daughters Piper and Willow.
Tipped off by Stacy’s mom, Suzie Robinson, that Joshua was having a relationship with a coworker, insurance coverage investigators launched a probe into Stacy’s demise. State authorities then found Joshua had given conflicting accounts of his whereabouts previous to discovering his spouse unconscious, telling one pal that he had gone for a stroll to burn off some power however one other that he was within the yard chopping wooden. In a 3rd account, Robinson says, her son-in-law claimed he was engaged on his pc along with his again towards Stacy when he circled and observed her slumped over the facet of their sofa.
Upon studying Stacy was an organ donor, officers acquired a search warrant and analyzed a routine blood pattern that was drawn after Stacy’s demise and preserved by the organ donor lab. They made an alarming discovery: Her blood had elevated ranges of the energetic ingredient in eye drops, tetrahydrozoline, a chemical that, if ingested, could cause cardiac arrest.
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On Dec. 19, 2019, Joshua was arrested and charged with first-degree homicide and insurance coverage fraud. Prosecutors now consider he started poisoning his spouse with eye drops in her drinks “over a time frame resulting in her demise,” in line with court docket paperwork. Joshua has pleaded not responsible and was freed on $1.5 million bail.
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Information of Joshua’s arrest shook the Hunsuckers’ placid, close-knit neighborhood. “I used to be shocked,” says O’Day. “I used to be like, ‘If I wrote 10 people who I knew that I believed would commit a criminal offense, he wouldn’t even be a glimpse in my mind. I might’ve by no means thought that, ever.”
Mike Hensdill/USA TODAY NETWORK/ Imagn Photographs
Joshua Hunsucker in court docket
The highschool sweethearts have been married in Myrtle Seashore, S.C., in 2010. At house in Mount Holly, Stacy labored as a trainer at First Methodist Church Preschool, as a paralegal at two regulation corporations after which as a full-time homemaker, whereas Joshua, a former school soccer participant, turned a paramedic aboard medical evacuation helicopters with Atrium Well being’s MedCenter Air. On nights out Stacy and Joshua went to live shows and cookouts with pals. “Only a cute couple,” says O’Day. “I by no means heard them argue.”
However over the course of greater than a decade collectively, the Hunsuckers suffered a number of setbacks. In line with information reviews citing a now-disabled GoFundMe web page, Stacy started experiencing unspecified medical issues in 2013 after the delivery of her first daughter, Piper. Months later a fireplace at their house destroyed lots of their belongings. The next yr Stacy was hospitalized for low blood strain and a low coronary heart fee after giving delivery to her second daughter, Willow. She was admitted once more months later and had a pacemaker implanted.
Associated: Paramedic Allegedly Used Eye Drops to Kill Wife: ‘She Was a Great Mother,’ Says Friend
“After many exams, the docs are nonetheless stumped to what’s [going] on,” the GoFundMe organizer reportedly wrote.
After Stacy died, Joshua’s colleagues allegedly instructed investigators that Joshua appeared “unaffected” and “shortly moved on” with a brand new girlfriend, who turned a fixture on the house he as soon as shared with Stacy.
“He was throughout her on a regular basis,” says babysitter Kailyn Macdonald, who began working for Joshua months after Stacy’s demise. “They talked about shifting right into a home collectively—not that home, however shopping for a home collectively.” Macdonald remembers that Joshua hardly ever spoke about his deceased partner. “He by no means stated, ‘I miss Stacy,’ or, ‘I miss their mom.’ I don’t perceive that. When my dad died, I actually talked about him nonstop.”
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After Joshua was launched from custody, relations with Stacy’s mother and father—who’ve filed a wrongful-death lawsuit towards him and since sought custody of Piper, now 12, and Willow, now 10—grew more and more tense. Authorities declare Joshua “engaged in a sample of harassment” directed at Suzie and John Robinson. His unusual conduct allegedly included recording and photographing the couple at Piper’s lacrosse practices, making vulgar gestures towards them in public and hanging out of their church’s car parking zone whereas they attended companies.
On Feb. 4, 2023, authorities attest, Joshua falsely reported to police that he had been “pistol-whipped within the head,” zip-tied and injected with an unknown chemical by John after Joshua pulled to the facet of a street to vary a flat tire. However authorities say they have been unable to search out proof to assist his declare. They consider Joshua faked the kidnapping to “shift accountability” for Stacy’s demise to her mother and father, in line with a movement to revoke his bond.
Shockingly, 20 days after the supposed roadside incident, prosecutors contend, Joshua tried to poison older daughter Piper by placing “the identical substance that killed his spouse” right into a beverage bottle. The alleged poisoning, prosecutors stated, was “as soon as once more finished with an try and implicate Mr. and Mrs. Robinson within the demise of his spouse and take away the Robinsons from the lives of his daughters,” in line with the movement. Additionally present in Piper’s system was a melancholy treatment that’s not prescribed for youngsters—the identical treatment investigators declare to have present in a bag in Joshua’s truck when he filed the kidnapping report towards his father-in-law.
Joshua was arrested once more on Aug. 6, 2024, and charged with witness intimidation and obstruction of justice. He’s now awaiting trial on the Gaston County Jail. In the meantime Stacy’s family members stay unhappy and perplexed by her demise. “Stacy was at all times such a sort, loving individual,” Philip Smith, a member of her church, stated. “She solely introduced goodness wherever she went.”
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