EYE DROPS USED BY PARAMEDIC TO MURDER HIS WIFE

Death by Visine? Man accused of killing wife via eye drops

By Michael Banks

Gaston Gazette
December 20, 2019

A Mount Holly man used Visine to poison his wife, causing her death in September 2018, a special prosecutor told a Gaston County judge Friday afternoon.

Joshua Lee Hunsucker, 35, of 304 Eastwood Drive, was arrested and booked into the Gaston County Jail at 6:25 p.m. Thursday, charged with the first-degree murder of Stacy Robinson Hunsucker, who he had been married to for eight years.

During his first appearance in court Friday, Hunsucker appeared before District Court Judge James Jackson wearing an orange, short-sleeved jumpsuit with the words Gaston County Inmate in black across the back.

He showed little emotion when Jackson set his bond at $1.5 million.

Special agents with the North Carolina Department of Insurance had been investigating Joshua Hunsucker in May after Stacy Robinson Hunsucker’s mother, Suzie Robinson, made an allegation of insurance fraud by her former son-in-law resulting from the suspicious death of her daughter.

Upon his wife’s death, Joshua Hunsucker had received $250,000 as the beneficiary on her two life insurance policies.

According to information provided in an affidavit for a search warrant, Suzie’s Robinson’s beliefs stemmed from a relationship that Joshua was allegedly having with a girlfriend prior to her daughter’s death.

According to investigators, Joshua’s co-workers at Atrium Health’s MedCenter Air, where he had served as a lead paramedic since 2013, were also surprised how unaffected he seemed by his wife’s death. They were also shocked by how fast he had another girlfriend less than six months after his wife’s death.

According to the affidavit, Joshua Hunsucker gave different versions of where he was before he discovered his wife slumped over, not breathing and blue, at their home on Sept. 23, 2018. He had told investigators he was seated at the kitchen table, with his back to her, working on his computer, when he turned around to see her slumped over on the couch.

Jordan Green, an attorney for the fraud investigations unit of the North Carolina Department of Insurance, said Friday that Stacy Hunsucker suffered “some sort of health issue” at the Hunsucker home. She was taken to the hospital where she would later die.

The affidavit says while Joshua Hunsucker didn’t allow an autopsy to be performed on his wife’s body, a blood sample had been preserved as part of her wish to make an organ donation.

After the allegation was made by Suzie Robinson and the investigation began, the blood was tested and, according to Green, contained high levels of tetrahydrozoline, which is a form of medicine called imidazoline, which is found in over-the-counter eye drops and nasal sprays.

The amount found in Stacy Hunsucker’s blood -- according to the affidavit 30 to 40 times higher than the therapeutic level -- would have had a “dramatic effect on her heart, which would cause heart stoppage in a short amount of time,” Green said.

About two weeks before Stacy Hunsucker’s death, a similar incident occurred in York, S.C., where a nurse had put eye drops in her husband’s water, causing a seizure and cardiac arrest. The arrest of the nurse received widespread news coverage in the Charlotte area.

“We have probable cause he poisoned Mrs. Hunsucker with Visine, which caused her death,” Green said in court Friday.

Stacy Hunsucker had suffered from heart problems in the past and even received a pacemaker in February 2015.

A Go Fund Me page was created in January 2015 by a family friend to help provide funds for the family as Joshua was having to stay home to take care of his wife and daughters. The Josh and Stacy Hunsucker Medical Fund had raised $10,405 of its $20,000 goal with the last donation coming 15 months ago.

The page stated that in February 2013 Stacy Hunsucker suffered medical problems in the delivery of their first child, a daughter. Five months later, a fire destroyed their home and most of their belongings.

In October 2014, Stacy would again suffer complications from another birth, the couple’s second daughter. A month later, Stacy was admitted to the hospital with a low heart rate and low blood pressure. In the hospital, Stacy went into cardiac arrest and would eventually receive a pacemaker during a surgery in February 2015.

Attorney David Teddy, who was representing Joshua Hunsucker during Friday’s court appearance, said the allegations would be “strenuously opposed.”

Teddy said Joshua Hunsucker had no criminal record other than a few speeding tickets and he had a “strong family tie to the community,” having grown up in Stanley and graduating from East Gaston High School, which Stacy Robinson Hunsucker also attended.

There were nine people, including his mother and father, who attended Friday’s hearing in support of him.

Teddy argued that Joshua Hunsucker was not a flight risk as he asked Judge Jackson to set a reasonable bond of $50,000.

“He has not run from it (the murder allegation). He meets it head-on,” Teddy said.

To set his bond any higher would drain Joshua Hunsucker’s financial resources as he prepares to defend himself and also keeps him from working to support his two daughters, ages 6 and 5, Teddy said.

“He needs to be doing everything he can to take care of his two little girls,” Teddy said. “The man’s coming back to court.”

While Teddy pointed out Hunsucker’s work history with MedCenter Air, Green said he actually has been on administrative leave for the past two weeks for misconduct at his workplace.

Green also pointed to the $250,000 in life insurance proceeds.

Hunsucker “has less holding him here than what was presented,” Green told the judge, asking that the bond be set between $1 million and $2 million.

In setting the $1.5 million bond, Jackson said if Hunsucker posts bail, then he would be outfitted with a GPS monitoring device.

Hunsucker’s next court appearance, a probable cause hearing, is set for Jan. 9.

Stacy Hunsucker’s obituary says that she graduated from East Gaston High School and got her associates degree in paralegal sciences from Gaston College. She was a lifetime member of Mount Holly First United Methodist Church where she participated in many groups and activities.

She worked for the preschool at First Baptist Charlotte, was a former teacher at First Methodist Preschool in Mount Holly, worked as a paralegal at Ted Greve and Associates, and also for Reagan and Reagan. She also worked for many years at the Stowe YMCA.

She loved crafting, going to the beach, watching sports and taking pictures of her daughters and herself, said her obituary.

On both his and her separate Facebook pages, there are a number of photos showing the couple in happy times.

In fact, on his Facebook page, on the anniversary of his wife’s death, Hunsucker posted a happy photo of the couple with the message: “One year ago our lives changed forever. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of her, her encouragement, her smile, how awesome of a mother she was. So much changes when you lose the love of your life and when a child loses their mommy at a young age. Friends, family, relationships, work; some good and some bad. Some you understand and some you don’t. We choose to live happily because that’s what she would want.”