GASTON COUNTY, N.C. (Court TV) — A former paramedic in North Carolina accused of murdering his wife and poisoning his daughter will remain behind bars after being denied bond at a hearing on Monday.
Joshua Hunsucker stands in court during a hearing on Nov. 4, 2024. (Court TV)
Joshua Hunsucker, 40, is charged with the first-degree murder of his wife, Stacy Robinson Hunsucker, who died on Sept. 23, 2018. Joshua told people that Stacy died of a heart attack and immediately had her cremated. He also filed a claim for a $250,000 life insurance payout just days after his wife’s death, according to court documents.
Stacy had been an organ donor, and as a result, a vial of her blood was kept in a file. Investigators tested the blood, citing Joshua’s odd behavior, and found that she had been poisoned with tetrahydrozoline, found in eyedrops.
In a bond motion reviewed by Court TV, prosecutors said that before Stacy’s death, Joshua “told two former co-workers that if he killed someone, he would do so using Visine or other eyedrops.”
Investigators say that Joshua, believing police were closing in on him for his wife’s murder, began behaving erratically to shift attention away from himself. On Nov. 26, 2019, days before he was arrested, Joshua allegedly set fire to a medical helicopter while he was on board working as a paramedic. The helicopter made an emergency landing. Joshua is facing charges of burning personal property in that incident.
Days after he was arrested and charged with his wife’s murder, Joshua bonded out of jail on Dec. 24, 2019. Prosecutors say on Feb. 4, 2023, Joshua again tried to distract from his case when he staged his own kidnapping and assault. Joshua told police that he had stopped to change a flat tire when he was pistol-whipped in the head, zip-tied and injected with an unknown substance. Joshua told police that his attacker was John Robinson, his late wife’s father.
Police found no evidence that Robinson attacked Joshua, but rather discovered that Joshua had been stalking and harassing his former in-laws. The harassment included driving by their home, following them and sending packages to their home.
At a July hearing, a judge determined that Joshua had been neglecting both of his children, ages 9 and 11, and that he had allegedly abused the 11-year-old. Prosecutors say Joshua poisoned the 11-year-old by putting tetrahydrozoline into her drink. The child, identified as P.H. in court documents, was taken to the hospital with low blood pressure, low heart rate, extreme exhaustion, and constricted blood vessels. Prosecutors said that in addition to tetrahydrozoline, O-desmethylvenlafaxine, a drug commonly prescribed for depression and not approved for use in children, was also found in P.H.’s system. The same drug was allegedly found in Joshua’s truck.
Court TV has covered a murder involving eyedrops before: Jessy Kurczewski was convicted of killing her friend, Lynn Hernan, who died of tetrahydrozoline poisoning. In that case, Kurczewski had claimed that the victim enjoyed drinking the solution.
