Missouri man confesses to murdering hospitalized wife claiming he couldn’t afford medical bills, police say

A Missouri man has confessed to police that he strangled his wife to death as she lay in her hospital bed because he couldn’t afford to care for her any longer, court documents allege.

Ronnie Wiggs has been charged with second-degree murder of his wife after he was eerily heard by medical staff in a hospital in Independence saying, “I did it, I killed her, I choked her,” according to court documents from the Jackson County Prosecutor.

The husband allegedly carried out the act on Friday evening while his wife was in hospital getting a dialysis port changed.

Prosecutors allege that Wiggs “choked her unconscious,” covering her mouth to keep her from screaming and then left the hospital.

Before her death, the victim, who was not named by authorities but identified as the suspect’s wife, was “alert and oriented.”

However, at around 8.30pm, hospital staff found the victim unresponsive with no pulse and started to carry out lifesaving measures in an attempt to save her life.

She was found with injuries, including redness to the left and right side of her neck and a fresh wound in the middle of her throat, court documents say.

At around 11.22pm, an off-duty officer responded to the ICU after the woman was reported to be a victim of assault.

While staff members were able to eventually get a pulse, authorities said she died the following day at 8.28am.

While they were in the hospital room, Wiggs announced that he had choked and killed his wife, the documents state.

At the hospital, Wiggs was placed under arrest by the off-duty officer on an investigative hold for first-degree domestic assault, as at that point, his wife had yet to be pronounced dead.

Later on, however, investigators were told she no longer had any brain function and life-saving measures were to be discontinued.

In an interview with investigators, the documents allege that Wiggs claimed that he was depressed and could not afford to pay the medical bills and take care of her any longer.

Wiggs is in custody and held on a $250,000 bond.