THE EYE DROP KILLER?

STACY HUNSUCKER’S DEATH IN NORTH CAROLINA WAS THOUGHT TO BE OF NATURAL CAUSES. BUT THEN INVESTIGATORS DID A BLOOD TEST

- By CHRISTINE PELISEK

A preschool teacher turned busy stay-at-home mother to two young daughters, Stacy Hunsucker liked to fill what free time she had with art projects and watching sports on TV. “She did a lot of crafty things, like making little painted wooden signs,” says her friend Shellie O’Day, who stopped by the Mount Holly, N.C., home Stacy shared with her husband, Joshua, a flight paramedic, and their girls Piper and Willow in the summer of 2018 to pickupa “welcome” sign O’Day purchased for $50. The pair lingered for a few minutes, chatting about their lives and plans. “She was trying to lose alittle bit of weight, which after having kids and being a little older gets hard,’ O’Day recalls. “It was a normal, everyday conversation. She seemed fine.”

Yet, some six weeks later, Stacy’s health and apparent happiness took a drastic turn for the worse. On Sept. 23, 2018, Joshua, 40, called 911 and told responding officers he had found his 32-year-old wife “not breathing and blue” when he returned from going outside to check that their vehicles were locked after hearing of a rash of car thefts in the neighborhood. Stacy was pronounced dead of an apparent heart attack.

Outwardly, Joshua seemed subdued by his loss—but his behavior in the days that followed raised eyebrows. Authorities say Joshua refused to allow a coroner to perform an autopsy, stating that he did not want his wife “to be cut up,” even though Stacy had registered to be an organ donor. Within two days Stacy’s body was cremated, and Joshua filed a claim for her $250,000 life insurance policy.