(PatriotWise.com) — A Connecticut laboratory scientist who was charged with murdering her husband in 2017 and storing his body for about six months while continuing to deposit his paychecks pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Monday, CBS News reported.
In a March 11 press release, the Hartford State’s Attorney’s Office said Linda Kosuda-Bigazzi, 76, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and first-degree larceny in the beating death of her husband, University of Connecticut Medical School pathology and laboratory science professor Dr. Pierluigi Bigazzi, in 2017.
Kosuda-Bigazzi was arrested in mid-February 2018 after police discovered the body of her 84-year-old husband in the basement of their home in Burlington, Connecticut, when they conducted a wellness check after the medical school reported that the professor had not been seen or heard from in months.
The medical examiner determined that Dr. Bigazzi’s cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. According to investigators, the professor was likely killed sometime in July 2017, but his paychecks from UConn continued to be deposited in the couple’s checking account until Kosuda-Bigazzi’s arrest in February 2018.
Prosecutors accused Kosuda-Bigazzi of wrapping her husband’s body in plastic and storing it in the basement while she continued to deposit his paychecks into their account.
Kosuda-Bigazzi claimed that she killed her husband in self-defense.
At the time of Kosuda-Bigazzi’s arrest, the professor’s ex-wife, Anna, told WFSB that detectives had requested copies of alimony checks she had received at the time to see if the signatures had been forged.
Neighbors of the couple told WFSB that police had to be called on two occasions after Kosuda-Bigazzi had been “confrontational” and angry toward children in the neighborhood.
In Monday’s press release, State’s Attorney Sharmese Walcott said her office was grateful to resolve the case that had been pending for six years.
Kosuda-Bigazzi’s sentencing is scheduled for June 28 in Hartford Superior Court.
According to WFSB, Kosuda-Bigazzi worked with her husband as a laboratory scientist at UConn Medical School.
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