Connecticut
Connecticut woman found dead hours before sentencing for husband's death
A 76-year-old Connecticut woman was found dead at her home Wednesday, hours before she was to be sentenced for killing her husband and hiding his body for months while continuing to collect his paychecks.
State police said they were investigating the “untimely death” of Linda Kosuda-Bigazzi after being called to her Burlington home for a welfare check shortly after 10:30 a.m. The cause of her death was under investigation, and police and her lawyer did not disclose any further details.
Kosuda-Bigazzi had been scheduled under a plea deal to be sentenced at 2 p.m. Wednesday in Hartford Superior Court to 13 years in prison for the 2017 death of her husband, Dr. Pierluigi Bigazzi, 84.
Her lawyer, Patrick Tomasiewicz, said her death was unexpected.
“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.”
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. “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.”
State troopers found her husband’s body in their basement in February 2018 during a wellness check requested by UConn Health staff. It was wrapped in plastic and showed an advanced stage of decomposition, authorities said. The medical examiner said he had died from blunt trauma to his head.
Investigators have said they believe Pierluigi Bigazzi died sometime in July 2017 and that his UConn Health paychecks continued to be deposited into the couple’s joint checking account until his body was found.
An internal investigation by UConn resulted in the disciplining of a school medical official who was supposed to monitor Pierluigi Bigazzi’s work but had no contact with him in the months before his body was found.
Two people have been arrested in connection to a shooting at an event hall in Waterbury last weekend.
Officers received information about a shooting at So Blu’Niq on Wolcott Street on Sunday around 5 a.m. It was also reported that a victim from the incident had admitted themselves to the hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds.
Police said they made contact with the 27-year-old victim at the hospital. According to investigators, she had a gunshot wound to her abdomen and her arm. She is reportedly still admitted and receiving treatment, but is considered to be in stable condition.
Investigators responded to So Blu’Niq and found a crime scene. Authorities said they determined there was an isolated disturbance that happened inside the business that escalated to a firearm being discharged and the woman being hit by a projectile.
While investigating, authorities said they also determined that at the time of the incident, liquor and alcoholic beverages were illegally being sold without a permit or license.
Warrants were secured for a 50-year-old woman from Waterbury and a 29-year-old man from Waterbury.
The woman was taken into custody on Friday and is being charged with illegal sale of alcohol. She is set to appear in court on June 10.
The man was taken into custody on Wednesday and is facing charges including assault, criminal possession of a firearm, criminal possession of a pistol/revolver by a convicted felon, illegal discharge of a firearm, reckless endangerment and carrying a pistol without a permit. He appeared in court on Thursday on a $1.5 millon bond.
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