A 76-year-old woman in Connecticut was discovered dead at her home just hours before she was set to be sentenced for the killing of her husband and concealing his body for an extended period while continuing to receive his paychecks.
State police responded to a welfare check at Linda Kosuda-Bigazzi's Burlington residence and reported her 'untimely death.' The cause of her passing is currently under investigation, with no further details disclosed by authorities or her legal representative.
Kosuda-Bigazzi had previously entered a guilty plea to manslaughter and larceny in connection to the death of her husband, Dr. Pierluigi Bigazzi, a professor at UConn Health. She was facing a 13-year prison sentence as part of a plea deal.
According to her lawyer, her sudden death came as a surprise. He described her as an independent woman who was always in control of her own destiny.
Police revealed that Kosuda-Bigazzi had written about the events leading to her husband's death, stating that she acted in self-defense during a confrontation that turned violent. Her husband's body was found in their basement in a state of advanced decomposition, with the cause of death determined to be blunt trauma to the head.
Investigators believe that Pierluigi Bigazzi passed away in July 2017, yet his paychecks from UConn Health continued to be deposited into the couple's joint account until his remains were discovered. An internal inquiry at UConn resulted in disciplinary action against a medical official who was responsible for monitoring Dr. Bigazzi's work but had not been in contact with him for months prior to the grim discovery.
