Husband’s body found in basement months after death, officials say. Wife pleads guilty
Six years ago, police found a man’s body in the basement of his home where he lived with his wife, according to the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice.
The discovery was made in February 2018, after 84-year-old Pierluigi Bigazzi’s employer called police and requested a welfare check because they hadn’t heard from him for months, officials said.
However, authorities believe Bigazzi died in July 2017, according to officials. Since his death, his paychecks were deposited into a checking account he shared with his wife, Linda Kosuda-Bigazzi, authorities said.
Kosuda-Bigazzi is accused of killing her husband and collecting his checks, according to prosecutors, CBS News reported.
Bigazzi, who was a UConn Health professor of laboratory science and pathology, died from blunt force head trauma, according to a medical examiner, and his body was found wrapped in plastic inside their Burlington home, according to CBS News.
On March 11, Kosuda-Bigazzi, 76, pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree manslaughter and first-degree larceny in relation to Bigazzi’s death, Hartford Judicial District State’s Attorney Sharmese L. Walcott announced in a news release.
“This case has been pending for six years so we are thankful we were able to reach a resolution today,” Walcott said in a statement.
Patrick Tomasiewicz, Kosuda-Bigazzi’s attorney, told McClatchy News in a statement on March 12 that his client “decided that she did not want to go to trial and elected to enter a plea of guilty to reduced charges.”
“The death of her husband was a tragedy and Professor Bigazzi wanted the book closed on her case,” Tomasiewicz said. “We fought a six-year battle for her on a variety of constitutional issues and although we wanted to continue to trial our client instructed otherwise.”
Kosuda-Bigazzi previously worked for UConn Health like her husband, NBC Connecticut reported in March 2018. At the time, UConn told the outlet that she held an unpaid “gratis” position and that her role, described as “unclear,” hadn’t been reviewed in over 10 years.
After finding Bigazzi’s body, police arrested Kosuda-Bigazzi in February 2018, according to officials.
When officers executed a search warrant at the couple’s home, they found two files inside a locked cabinet, according to a summary of the case. In the files, titled “Criminal Defense Attorney Oct 2017” and “Incident 2017,” Kosuda-Bigazzi wrote she killed her husband in self-defense.
Kosuda-Bigazzi is accused of writing that she killed Bigazzi by hitting him in the head with a hammer, according to court records, the Hartford Courant reported.
She’s due back in court for a sentencing hearing scheduled for June 28, according to the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice.
Kosuda-Bigazzi was released from custody on a $1.5 million bond, records show.
Burlington is about a 20-mile drive west from Hartford.
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