A North Carolina man charged in connection with his wife’s 2018 death has entered a not guilty plea to newly added charges after prosecutors say he staged his own kidnapping. Joshua Hunsucker, 41, a former paramedic, is accused of killing his wife, Stacy Robinson Hunsucker, with eyedrops containing tetrahydrozoline and lying about her cause of death to obtain a $250,000 life insurance policy in September 2018. In Gaston County, his defense attorney entered the not guilty plea to counts including first-degree murder, insurance fraud, and obtaining property by false pretenses.
Prosecutors allege that Hunsucker repeatedly added eyedrops to Stacy’s drinks over an extended period, ultimately causing her death in the couple’s Mount Holly home. Investigators say he told people she died of a heart attack and filed paperwork with the insurance company. Stacy’s body was cremated within two days of her death, but suspicion grew when her mother observed that Hunsucker appeared unusually unfazed by the death and had moved in with a girlfriend shortly thereafter. Authorities say the case was built, in part, on a single blood sample taken by the hospital, tied to Stacy’s status as an organ donor.
Hunsucker was arrested in December 2019 and released on $1.5 million bond while awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges. While out on bond in 2023, authorities allege he staged his own kidnapping and harassed his late wife’s parents, using zip ties in the staged abduction and claiming they had injected him with an unknown substance. He was brought back to court in August 2024 to face new allegations that he also attempted to poison his daughter, who was then 10, using the same method. Prosecutors demanded the revocation of his bail package, and a judge granted it. Hunsucker has requested that the murder trial be moved out of Gaston County due to intense media coverage, and a trial date for the case is still being finalized.
