Paramedic Allegedly Used Eye Drops to Kill Wife: 'She Was a Great Mother,' Says Friend
A North Carolina paramedic has been accused of using eye drops to kill his wife, who was his high school sweetheart.
Joshua Lee Hunsucker, 35, was booked Friday in Gaston County jail on a charge of first-degree murder in the 2018 death of his 32-year-old wife Stacy Hunsucker.
The North Carolina Department of Insurance began investigating her death after Stacy’s mother, Suzie Robinson, accused Hunsucker of insurance fraud after she learned of a relationship she believed he was having prior to his wife’s death, the Shelby Star reports.
According to the Star, Hunsucker, a paramedic with Atrium Health’s MedCenter Air, collected $250,000 in life insurance after his wife’s death.
Hunsucker’s colleagues allegedly told investigators that Hunsucker seemed “unaffected” by his wife’s death and that he swiftly moved in with his new girlfriend to the home he shared with Stacy after her death, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained by ABC News.
Hunsucker allegedly gave multiple versions of where he was before he said he found his wife slumped over the side of a couch at their home. To a friend, he allegedly said he had gone out for a walk. To Robinson, he allegedly told her that he was working on his computer in the kitchen when he noticed Stacy slumped on the couch, the affidavit states, ABC reports.
Hunsucker allegedly refused to have an autopsy performed on his wife and she was cremated after her death, according to the affidavit. However, because she was an organ donor, a blood sample had been saved, which was taken to a lab for testing.
According to the affidavit, Stacy’s blood had extremely high levels of Tetrahydrozoline, an ingredient found in eye drops, the Star reports.
“Josh Hunsucker is a flight paramedic for Medcenter Air for which his training and experience would certainly provide a thorough understanding of various types of medication and how those medications could react in the body,” the affidavit states. “Additionally, his employment provides access to non-controlled substances which do not require logging or inventory control.”
“That medicine has a dramatic effect on your heart and would cause heart stoppage or heart failure,” state attorney Jordan Green said in court Friday, WSOC-TV reports.
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
“We have probable cause he poisoned Mrs. Hunsucker with Visine, which caused her death,” Green said, according to the Star.
Green said Hunsucker was currently on administrative leave and under investigation after being accused of misconduct, WSOC-TV reports.
According to a Gofundme page, Stacy had been experiencing medical problems since 2013 after she gave birth to her daughter Piper and was given a pacemaker in 2015. A friend had started the page to help the husband with mounting medical bills.
Friend Kelly Kreeger told WSOC-TV that she was shocked when she heard the news of the mother of two’s death. “I mean she did not deserve for this to happen to her. She was a great mother. She was a happy person.”
Hunsucker is being held at Gaston County jail on a $1.5 million bond. A probable cause hearing is scheduled for Jan. 9.
His lawyer could not be reached for comment.
