A preschool instructor turned busy stay-at-home mom to 2 younger daughters, Stacy Hunsucker favored to fill what free time she had with artwork initiatives and watching sports activities on TV.
“She did numerous artful issues, like making little painted picket indicators,” says her good friend Shellie O’Day, who stopped by the Mount Holly, N.C., house Stacy shared along with her husband, Joshua, a flight paramedic, and their women 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 attempting to lose a little bit little bit of weight, which after having children and being a little bit older will get arduous,” O’Day remembers. “It was a standard, on a regular basis dialog. She appeared superb.”
But, some six weeks later, Stacy’s well being and obvious happiness took a drastic flip for the more serious. On Sept. 23, 2018, Joshua, 40, known as 911 and informed responding officers he had discovered his 32-year-old spouse “not respiration and blue” when he returned from going exterior to test that their automobiles had been locked after listening to of a rash of automobile thefts within the neighborhood.
Stacy was pronounced lifeless of an obvious coronary heart assault. Outwardly, Joshua appeared subdued by his loss—however his habits 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,” though 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 loss of life. State authorities then found Joshua had given conflicting accounts of his whereabouts previous to discovering his spouse unconscious, telling one good friend that he had gone for a stroll to burn off some power however one other that he was within the yard reducing 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 aspect 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 loss of life 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 imagine he started poisoning his spouse with eye drops in her drinks “over a time period resulting in her loss of life,” 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 folks that I knew that I believed would commit a criminal offense, he wouldn’t even be a glimpse in my mind. I’d’ve by no means thought that, ever.”
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Joshua Hunsucker in court docket
The highschool sweethearts had been married in Myrtle Seashore, S.C., in 2010. At house in Mount Holly, Stacy labored as a instructor at First Methodist Church Preschool, as a paralegal at two legislation corporations after which as a full-time homemaker, whereas Joshua, a former faculty soccer participant, grew to become a paramedic aboard medical evacuation helicopters with Atrium Well being’s MedCenter Air. On nights out Stacy and Joshua went to concert events and cookouts with associates. “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 keeping with information experiences citing a now-disabled GoFundMe web page, Stacy started experiencing unspecified medical issues in 2013 after the beginning of her first daughter, Piper. Months later a hearth at their house destroyed lots of their belongings. The next yr Stacy was hospitalized for low blood strain and a low coronary heart price after giving beginning to her second daughter, Willow. She was admitted once more months later and had a pacemaker implanted.
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“After many checks, the docs are nonetheless stumped to what’s [going] on,” the GoFundMe organizer reportedly wrote.
After Stacy died, Joshua’s colleagues allegedly informed investigators that Joshua appeared “unaffected” and “shortly moved on” with a brand new girlfriend, who grew to become a fixture on the house he as soon as shared with Stacy.
Associated: Man Accused of Poisoning 10-12 months-Outdated Daughter with Eye Drops After Allegedly Killing Spouse with Similar Substance: DA
“He was throughout her on a regular basis,” says babysitter Kailyn Macdonald, who began working for Joshua months after Stacy’s loss of life. “They talked about transferring right into a home collectively—not that home, however shopping for a home collectively.” Macdonald remembers that Joshua not often spoke about his deceased partner. “He by no means mentioned, ‘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 dad and mom—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 habits 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 providers.
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 aspect of a highway to vary a flat tire. However authorities say they had been unable to search out proof to assist his declare. They imagine Joshua faked the kidnapping to “shift duty” for Stacy’s loss of life to her dad and mom, 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 mentioned, was “as soon as once more finished with an try and implicate Mr. and Mrs. Robinson within the loss of life 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 despair 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 loss of life. “Stacy was at all times such a form, loving individual,” Philip Smith, a member of her church, mentioned. “She solely introduced goodness wherever she went.”
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