Man Accused Of Killing Wife With Eye Drops Allegedly Poisoned Daughter While Awaiting Trial

A former North Carolina paramedic charged with fatally poisoning his wife with eye drops was free on $1.5 million bond when he used eye drops to poison his daughter, authorities said.

Prosecutors alleged that Joshua Lee Hunsucker, 39, poisoned his then-10-year-old daughter last year with tetrahydrozoline — an ingredient used in over-the-counter eye drops and nasal sprays — as part of a larger scheme to frame the parents of his wife, Stacy Robinson Hunsucker, for her 2018 killing. Originally, Stacy Hunsucker’s cause of death had been listed as a heart attack, and it wasn’t until her mother, Suzanne Robinson, contacted the North Carolina Department of Insurance and accused him of insurance fraud that a criminal investigation was launched, prosecutors said.

Suzanne and John Robinson would later claim in court documents that Joshua Hunsucker was inspired by another criminal case in which eye drops were used as poison as he sought to kill his wife to cash in her $250,000 life insurance policy. But that was only the beginning of a bizarre saga as laid out by prosecutors. Hunsucker would allegedly go on to set fire to a medical helicopter while it was midair, stage a kidnapping to prevent his in-laws from testifying against him, and abuse and neglect his daughters.

He is now in custody as he awaits trial on charges of murder, insurance fraud, intimidating a witness, obstruction of justice and arson. His attorney did not respond to a request for comment by HuffPost.

The Robinsons addressed their late daughter in a statement shared with a journalist shortly after Hunsucker’s arrest.

“Stacy, your mother and father promise you that we will not rest until justice is served. We will do everything in our power to support and care