A terrible turn of events occurred when Linda Bigazzi, 76, of Connecticut, who was facing manslaughter charges for her husband’s death, committed suicide a few hours before her scheduled court appearance.
The case has captivated the community, prompting many to question how such a dire outcome could have occurred.
After someone complained that they couldn’t get in touch with Bigazzi, Connecticut State Police were summoned to her home on July 24. She was dead when the police came. Bigazzi died from ethylene glycol intoxication, which is a direct indication that she had drunk antifreeze, a chemical that is sadly known to have fatal effects when ingested, according to the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Bigazzi’s suicide came on the heels of her guilty plea to first-degree manslaughter in March for the 2017 death of her 84-year-old husband, who was a professor and doctor at the University of Connecticut Health.
The circumstances behind Bigazzi’s husband’s death were tragically complicated. Bigazzi wrote in documents discovered at her house that she acted in self-defense. According to what she wrote, her spouse had attacked her with a hammer, which she had managed to get hold of and use fatally on him. She said, “I just wanted to slow him down,” and described spending a long period in their kitchen sitting next to his body.
Although the complete details of Linda’s marriage to her husband may never be known, her choice to take her own life with antifreeze hours before she was sentenced, adding a horrible epilogue to this already devastating tale.
The case brings up challenging issues of domestic abuse, the stress of potential legal repercussions, and the mental health difficulties that can follow such horrific experiences.