Wife found dead before sentencing in husband’s slaying died by ingesting antifreeze: Officials
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(NEW YORK) — A Connecticut woman who was found dead hours before she was scheduled to be sentenced for killing her husband died by suicide after ingesting antifreeze, officials said Monday.
Linda Kosuda-Bigazzi, 76, was found dead at her home on July 24. Troopers responded to the house that morning after an individual reported they were at her residence but were unable to make contact with her, state police said at the time.
Her cause of death is ethylene glycol toxicity, according to the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Kosuda-Bigazzi had pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in March in the 2017 death of her husband, 84-year-old Pierluigi Bigazzi, according to the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice. Police found the University of Connecticut Health doctor and professor dead in the basement of the couple’s Burlington home while responding to a welfare check call from his employer, who had not heard from him for several months, prosecutors said.
Kosuda-Bigazzi also pleaded guilty to first-degree larceny for continuing to receive her husband’s pay following his death, according to the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice. Investigators found checks from her husband’s employer were deposited into the couple’s joint checking account from his death in July 2017 until the discovery of his body in February 2018, prosecutors said.
Her hearing was scheduled for 2 p.m. the day she was found dead.
“We were honored to be her legal counsel and did our very best to defend her in a complex case for the past six years,” her attorney, Patrick Tomasiewicz, said in a statement last month following her death. “She was a very independent woman who was always in control of her own destiny.”
ABC News has reached out to the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice for comment on the case.
Kosuda-Bigazzi had been out of jail while awaiting sentencing after posting more than $1.5 million in bail.
Her husband’s death was ruled a homicide by blunt injuries to the head, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Police found handwritten documents at the home in which she claimed she had killed her husband in self-defense, according to court records.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
(WASHINGTON) — In a private meeting with Donald Trump last week, FBI agents and other law enforcement officials offered the former president new, previously undisclosed details about the 20-year-old Pennsylvania man who came close to assassinating Trump at a rally last month, sources familiar with the meeting told ABC News.
Over more than 90 minutes on Aug. 1, law enforcement officials described shooter Thomas Crooks as a strikingly intelligent man who scored higher than 1500 on his SAT pre-college exam, but who also may have been struggling for years with an undiagnosed disorder, said the sources, who were briefed on the meeting.
Trump was told that, through interviews with Crooks’ family and others who knew him, investigators learned that throughout high school, Crooks would routinely sway back and forth while standing at the bus stop — but that Crooks never received any sort of formal diagnosis related to it, according to the sources.
Sources said the law enforcement officials also told Trump that they are still unable to say exactly what motivated Crooks to target Trump at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
In the days and weeks before the attack, Crooks searched online for both Democratic and Republican politicians, and it’s possible he chose to target Trump just because he was the next big name to come through Pennsylvania, Trump was told, according to sources.
Led by a senior agent from the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, last week’s meeting was scheduled to be what the FBI previously described as a “standard victim interview” of Trump, but much of it ended up being a briefing on the FBI’s investigation, with Trump asking the law enforcement officials more questions than they asked him, according to the sources.
Beyond questions about Crooks and how he made it onto the roof of a nearby building with an AR-15 style rifle, Trump also wanted to know whether authorities had uncovered any foreign connection to the attack.
The FBI agents told Trump that they were able to access three foreign email accounts used by Crooks because his passwords were stored on his computer, but they have found no indications that anyone else was involved in the attack, according to the sources.
The information gleaned from the foreign email accounts largely related to weapons and ammunition purchases, offering little insight into what drove Crooks to launch his attack, Trump was told, according to sources.
At a press conference on Thursday, Trump confirmed that he spoke with the FBI about Crooks, but he offered no further details about the discussion, saying only that the FBI has “done a very good job.”
The FBI previously disclosed that Crooks appeared to have virtually no friends, with a social circle that was limited to his immediately family. To illustrate Crooks’ high level of intelligence, law enforcement officials told Trump that Crooks could name every U.S. president, from George Washington to the present day, sources said.
According to sources, FBI agents also walked Trump through Crooks’ movements on the day of the attack, with the agents telling Trump that — even though the shooter had paid his father $500 to buy the rifle from him months earlier — Crooks still had to obtain the rifle from his father before he made his way to the rally site.
The FBI has not suggested that the father’s apparent sale of the weapon was in any way unlawful.
When Trump asked the law enforcement officials about claims that Crooks was spotted on the nearby building’s roof long before he first opened fire, and other claims that the Secret Service sniper who ultimately killed Crooks waited 10 minutes to take lethal action, the law enforcement officials made clear that such claims were not accurate, the sources said.
The law enforcement officials explained to Trump that — even though law enforcement was made aware of a suspicious person nearby — the first time anyone in law enforcement saw someone on the roof of the building was about three minutes before Crooks opened fire — and the first time any law enforcement saw that the person on the roof had a gun was about 30 seconds before Crooks opened fire, according to the sources.
At that point, a local law enforcement officer had started to climb onto the roof of the building when he encountered Crooks, who pointed his rifle at the officer, prompting the officer to fall to the ground and injure his ankle. The local officer then tried to alert other authorities, Trump was told, according to sources.
Much of that was captured in body-worn camera videos that were released Thursday by the Butler Township Police Department. The videos show officers scrambling around the building as they tried to find a way onto the roof, and the moment that one officer was raised onto the roof, only to then fall down.
“F—ing this close, bro!” the officer can be heard telling other officers after hitting the ground. “Dude, he turned around on me. He’s straight up!”
When, seconds later, a Secret Service sniper heard the gunshots, it took the sniper at most five seconds to locate the shooter on the roof and eliminate him with a single shot, Trump was told by the law enforcement officials, according to sources.
In the videos released Thursday by Butler Township police, an officer can he heard minutes after the shooting saying that he’s “pissed” he and his colleagues “just couldn’t find him” before shots rang out.
During Trump’s meeting with FBI agents last week, the former president praised the Secret Service sniper, saying he “did an amazing job” and “was an unbelievable shot,” sources said.
A spokesperson for the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office declined to comment to ABC News. A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — Testimony about the psychiatric history of a man who died in a chokehold aboard a New York City subway is only meant to “smear” the victim and should be precluded from upcoming trial of a former Marine charged with manslaughter, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said in a new court filing.
Daniel Penny is scheduled to stand trial next month after he put Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold in May 2023 aboard an F train in what his attorneys say was an effort to “protect the lives of his fellow passengers.” Penny’s attorneys are seeking to call a forensic psychiatrist who they said would “opine regarding the extent of Neely’s K2 abuse” and why that may have caused him to allegedly become “insanely threatening” to subway passengers.
Prosecutors asked the judge to exclude the testimony of the psychiatrist, Dr. Alexander Bardey, and limit what the defense can show from Neely’s psychiatric records.
“The psychiatrist’s testimony and the unredacted psychiatric records are inadmissible and their suggested introduction is a transparent attempt by the defense to smear the victim’s character so that the jury will devalue his life,” assistant district attorney Dafna Yoran said in a motion to preclude Bardey’s testimony from trial.
“Numerous witnesses will testify regarding Mr. Neely’s aggressive behavior on the date of the incident,” Yoran said. “The jury does not need and cannot be permitted to hear Dr. Bardey’s opine as to why Mr. Neely was aggressive.”
The defense has said Neely’s psychiatric history includes non-compliance with medication and chronic K2 abuse and argued that is relevant for the jury to hear.
“Neely’s history of volatile behavior while in treatment, and the steps taken to subdue/restrain him, are documented in these records, and speak to why our client had to use the force necessary to restrain him on the date of incident,” said defense attorney Thomas Kennif, who has argued Penny was justified in seeking to subdue Neely.
Penny has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and negligent homicide charges. He is scheduled to begin trial Oct. 21, re-submitting the highly charged case into the public consciousness less than a month before the election.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — The 29-year-old daughter of a former longtime MLB pitcher has been missing since last week after visiting a bar with her ex-boyfriend, according to police.
Brenna Swindell, the daughter of Greg Swindell, was last seen on Aug. 22 at Poodies Hilltop Bar in Spicewood, Texas, outside Austin, according to the Austin Police Department.
Swindell was at the bar at about 10:20 p.m. with her ex-boyfriend, Morgan Guidry, who has also not been seen since Thursday. Both of their cellphones have been off since Friday, police said.
Swindell is about 5-foot-4 and approximately 120 to 140 pounds, according to Austin police. She has brown hair and hazel eyes and tattoos on both arms.
Police identified a vehicle she might be traveling in — a white 2022 Kia Carnival minivan with Texas license plate VFS 7528 — and said she was “possibly seen” in Colorado Springs or Denver.
Police did not offer further information, but a post on Greg Swindell’s Facebook said that a license plate reader in Colorado flagged the Kia, owned by Brenna Swindell, on Friday night. Greg Swindell posted on his X account that people should be on the lookout for the vehicle in Idaho as well.
“Ms. Swindell has not been in usual contact with her family and friends,” Austin police wrote in a statement. “APD is concerned about her safety and immediate welfare.”
Greg Swindell played 17 seasons in the majors as a starting pitcher early in his career and later as a relief pitcher. He played for six different teams, including Cleveland, Cincinnati, Houston, Minnesota, Boston and Arizona. He finished his career with a record of 123-122 and a 3.86 ERA and won a World Series title with the Diamondbacks in 2001.
He was the No. 2 overall pick in the 1986 MLB draft out of the University of Texas at Austin.
“First of all, I can’t thank you enough for the shares and messages…I have been sifting through them while Greg is in Austin with the police,” Swindell’s wife, Sarah, wrote on his Facebook, adding, “Please continue to pray for the safe return. Thank you all so much again.”
ABC News’ Jenna Harrison and Jen Watts contributed to this report.
