A man has been charged with murder after he killed his wife in her hospital bed because he couldn’t afford the medical bills.
The Missouri man strangled his wife to death when she was in hospital as he was unable to care for her, police say.
A witness reported ‘suspicous injuries’ on a woman in the intensive care unit on May 3, with an off-duty officer with the Independence Police Department (PD) heading to the scene.
She was sadly pronounced dead the next morning.
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Her husband, Ronnie Wiggs was heard “by medical staff stating, ‘I did it, I killed her, I chocked her’, according to court documents.
He is facing second-degree murder in connection to his wife’s death, Jean Peters Baker, Jackson County Prosecutor said in a statement.
While Wiggs was questioned by cops, he “admitted that he had killed the victim by choking her and covering her mouth and nose to keep her from screaming”, court documents say.
He told police after he killed his wife, he left the hospital. A family member picked him up and returned him later after staff found his wife was unresponsive.
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“The defendant advised he had attempted to kill the victim two other times while the victim was hospitalized,” the court documents read.
“The defendant advised he last attempted to kill the victim while the victim was at a rehabilitation facility for her medical issues. He advised at that time he tried to choke her but could not follow through with it.
“The defendant advised the victim woke up and told him not to do that again. The defendant advised he was going to try to kill the victim another time, but he did not get the opportunity due to the fact the victim was hooked up to several monitors at the hospital.
“The defendant advised he was depressed and killed the victim because he could not take care of her anymore and he could not pay the medical bills that had been acquired.”
A witness later told cops the victim was his mother and she was admitted to hospital to receive a new port for dialysis.
On May 3, at around 7.30pm, medical staff said she was “alert and oriented”. But when they checked on her an hour later, a ‘Code Blue’ was initiated.
Her son told cops that “while in the hospital room, the defendant told him and a nurse that he killed his wife. The defendant advised he had choked the victim.”
Wiggs is currently being held in custody on a $250,000 bond.
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