A Connecticut widow who killed her husband has been found dead while awaiting sentencing on manslaughter charges for the brutal killing of her doctor husband.
Linda Kosuda-Bigazzi, 76, admitted bludgeoning her spouse Dr. Pierluigi Bigazzi, 84, to death in 2017.
She then wrapped his body in a rug and left it in the basement of their Burlington home, before continuing to collect pay checks from his employment at UConn Health.
Kosuda-Bigazzi was staring at the prospect of 13 years in jail after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter and first-degree larceny.
But in a shock development, the senior citizen was found dead just hours before she was due to be sentenced on Wednesday.
Linda Kosuda-Bigazzi, who killed her husband, has been found dead while awaiting sentencing on manslaughter charges
Her lawyer, Patrick Tomasiewicz, said her death was unexpected and did not state a cause.
‘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,’ he said in a statement.
‘She was a very independent woman who was always in control of her own destiny.’
The medical examiner is yet to release an exact cause of death.
However, a neighbor interviewed by the outlet said that Kosuda-Bigazzi had taken her own life.
‘We wanted her to be punished if she truly did this, which she admitted to,’ the neighbor told FOX61 as she expressed her shock at the news.
‘If I was walking down to get the mail she would turn around and go back to the house […] there was no interaction after the fact.’
Kosuda-Bigazzi, 76, admitted bludgeoning her spouse Dr. Pierluigi Bigazzi, 84, to death in 2017
She was found dead at their formerly shared home in Burlington, Connecticut on Wednesday hours before she was due to be sentenced
Kosuda-Bigazzi was arrested in February 2018 in connection with the death of her huband, a professor of laboratory science and pathology at UConn Health. Pictured: Police at her Burlington home
Kosuda-Bigazzi was arrested in February 2018 in connection with the death of her husband, a professor of laboratory science and pathology at UConn Health.
His body was discovered in the basement after police came over for a wellness check. Bigazzi was killed by a blunt trauma to the head sometime in July 2017, according to the medical examiner.
Investigators said his wife continued to cash his salary from then until her arrest and had been seeking a murder charge. In writings found at her house, Kosuda-Bigazzi said she killed her husband with a hammer in self-defense, state police said.
Kosuda-Bigazzi wrote that she and her husband got into a fight after she told him repairs were needed to their home’s backyard deck.
She wrote that he came at her with a hammer and she managed to wrestle it away from him during a lengthy struggle, authorities said.
‘I hit him just swinging the hammer in any direction + then he was quiet — for a few seconds + then he stopped breathing,’ she wrote, according to investigators.
Investigators said Kosuda-Bigazzi wrapped his body in a rug and left it in the basement of their home (pictured) before continuing to cash his salary until her arrest in February 2018
An exact cause of death has yet to be released by the medical examiner, but at least one neighbor has stated it was suicide
‘I just wanted to slow him down. I sat on the floor by the kitchen cabinets across from the stove — next to him for a long time.’
She was free after having posted more than $1.5 million for bail.
An internal investigation by UConn resulted in the disciplining of a school medical official who was supposed to monitor Bigazzi’s work, but had no contact with him in the months before his body was found.
Kosuda-Bigazzi was painted as the leader in the relationship, according to those living nearby.
‘She seemed to be the domineering one,’ the neighbor said. ‘He was a quieter, little Italian man. She was opinionated.’
Others said that frightened families had moved out of the area after learning the killer was out on bail.
