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Widower Accused Of Poisoning His Wife Arrested For Allegedly Starting Mid-Flight Helicopter Fire
John Hunsucker, who stands accused of using eye drops to kill his wife in 2018, is now alleged to have started a fire on a helicopter while out on bond.
A North Carolina man awaiting trial after being accused of fatally poisoning his wife with eye drops has been arrested again this week for allegedly setting fire to medical equipment while aboard a helicopter.
Joshua Hunsucker, 37, was arrested Monday in relation to the November 2019 fire, WCNC reports. Hunsucker, a paramedic, was on board an Atrium Health flight when a fire broke out, forcing the helicopter’s pilot to perform an emergency landing. Hunsucker has since been accused of setting a syringe pump on fire and intentionally starting the blaze, according to an arrest report obtained by WCNC.
Online jail records show that Hunsucker is facing a felony charge of burning personal property. He was released on bond on Tuesday and is expected to return to court for a probable cause hearing on May 18, according to the outlet.
Hunsucker is already facing more serious charges related to the 2018 death of his wife, Stacy Robinson Hunsucker. He was charged with murder in December 2019, with authorities claiming that he used tetryzoline, an ingredient commonly found in eye drops, to surreptitiously murder his wife, according to a WTVD-TV report.
Stacy Hunsucker’s parents grew suspicious after her husband claimed her $250,000 life insurance policy and proceeded to buy expensive items, including a boat, and embark on numerous vacations with his girlfriend — a woman the family claims he’d already begun an affair with while his wife was alive, WSOC-TV reports.
Hunsucker came under fire for allegedly telling different accounts about how he came to find his wife dead. He also refused to have the medical examiner’s office perform an autopsy on her, claiming that he didn’t want her to be “cut up;” instead, he had her remains cremated quickly after she died, WTVD-TV reports.
It was only after investigators were able to retrieve a sample of Stacy Hunsucker’s blood – she was an organ donor – that they were able to confirm the potentially toxic levels of tetryzoline that were in her system when she died.
Hunsucker is facing charges of first-degree murder, insurance fraud, and obtaining property by false pretenses greater than $100,000 in connection to his wife’s death, WCNC reports. His attorney declined to comment to WCNC on the new charges relating to the helicopter fire.
At the time of his wife's death, Hunsucker had been an employee of Atrium Health's MedCenter Air since 2013. He was fired in 2019, according to WCNC.
Stacy Hunsucker left behind two children. Before her death, those who knew her thought that she and her husband, who she'd been with since high school, were a happy couple, WSOC-TV reports.
“She did not deserve for this to happen to her,” Kelly Kreeger, a friend of the victim, told the station. “She was a great mother. She was a happy person.”
