CRIME
Man Allegedly Admits Killing Hospitalized Wife Because He Couldn’t Pay Medical Bills
Independence Police Department
A Missouri man in his 70s allegedly confessed that he killed his hospitalized wife because he couldn’t afford her medical bills, authorities said.
According to charging documents, a uniformed Independence Police Department officer was working off-duty at Centerpoint Medical Center in Independence on Friday when they were called to respond to a reported assault. A code blue was called for the unresponsive victim at around 8:30 p.m., and she was resuscitated and moved to the ICU.
The victim’s husband, Ronnie Wiggs, was allegedly heard by medical staff saying, I did it, I killed her, I choked her.
The officer on scene arrested Wiggs and transported him to the IPD detention center on a preliminary charge of first-degree domestic assault.
The victim was still alive, but had been declared brain dead, and lifesaving measures were discontinued. Her organs were harvested for donation, and she was pronounced dead at 8:30 a.m. Saturday. She had been in the hospital to get a new dialysis port.
Wiggs is now facing a second-degree murder charge, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.
According to charging documents, Wiggs admitted to detectives that he killed the victim by choking her and covering her mouth and nose to keep her from screaming.
Wiggs also allegedly admitted to attempting to kill his wife twice before. First, he attempted to kill her while she was in a rehabilitation facility for her medical issues, but she woke up and told him not to do that again. He said he considered it a second time, while she was hospitalized, but couldn’t go through with it because she was hooked up to several monitors.
He told detectives he was depressed because he could not take care of her anymore and he could not pay the medical bills.
Wiggs is being held on $250,000 bond, and a hearing is set for Thursday.
TMX contributed to this article.
