Left: Joshua Hunsucker (Gaston County Jail). Right: Stacy Hunsucker (obituary).
A former North Carolina paramedic who bonded out of jail just in time for Christmas in 2019 after being accused of fatally poisoning his wife with Visine and having her cremated right away is now suspected of also tainting his daughter’s drink with eye drops — as part of an alleged plot to pin her mother’s death on his in-laws.
Joshua Lee Hunsucker, now 39, was booked into jail in Gaston County on Tuesday afternoon, the same day that he was hit with witness intimidation and obstruction indictments, as Special Prosecutor R. Jordan Green and DA Travis Page sought to have his bond revoked.
In September 2018, Stacy Hunsucker, a mother of two daughters, died at the age of 32 from a cardiac arrest at her Mount Holly home, a death which seemed to be due to natural causes linked to known heart issues — Stacy had a pacemaker — but the way her husband of eight years allegedly acted in the immediate aftermath of her death only heightened suspicions.
Joshua allegedly insisted on there being no autopsy and had Stacy’s remains cremated swiftly, but Stacy was an organ donor and ensuing testing of a blood sample showed startlingly high levels of tetrahydrozoline, a chemical ingredient in eyedrops.
Worse yet, local ABC affiliate WTVD reported in 2019, co-workers were alarmed that the defendant quickly got a new girlfriend and moved her into the house where Stacy died, and Joshua’s mother-in-law Suzie Robinson said reported suspicions of her own about his attempt to collect on $250,000 in life insurance policy money.
As a result, Joshua Hunsucker was charged with insurance fraud and first-degree murder in December 2019, more than a year after Stacy’s death. He went on post a $1.5 million bond and was let out of jail in time for Christmas, Queen City News reported, and his defense lawyer David Teddy vowed to “strenuously” oppose the charges.
But there’s an even steeper hill for the defense to climb now, as Hunsucker faces new charges for alleged witness intimidation offenses, crimes he allegedly committed against John and Suzie Robinson in 2023 out of retaliation and to reframe Stacy’s death as their doing.
The Gaston Gazette reported that prosecutors theorize Hunsucker faked his own kidnapping and identified John Robinson as the perpetrator, harassed the Robinsons with a package telling them not to press charges any longer, followed them to church and lacrosse practices, and caused his daughter to be hospitalized by tainting her drink with eye drops to make it look like her grandparents tried to kill the 10-year-old in the same way her mother died.
Law&Crime reached out to defense attorney David Teddy for comment.
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