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Man, 75, confesses to killing wife in hospital because he couldn’t afford her care, court documents say
Independence, Mo. — A Kansas City-area man who’s charged with killing his hospitalized wife told police he couldn’t take care of her or afford her medical bills, court records say.
Ronnie Wiggs made his first appearance Monday on a second-degree murder charge and was referred to the public defender’s office. A hearing was set for Thursday to review his $250,000 bond.
A phone message that was left with the public defender’s office wasn’t immediately returned.
His wife was getting a new port for her dialysis when staff at Centerpoint Medical Center in Independence called a “code blue” Friday because she was unresponsive.
Staff managed to get her pulse back, but they determined she was brain dead and made preparations to harvest her organs, according to the probable cause statement. His wife died Saturday.
After the attack, Wiggs left the hospital. But the statement said the woman’s son brought Wiggs back to see her and he confessed. Staff heard him say, “I did it, I killed her, I choked her,” according to the statement.
CBS Kansas City, Mo. affiliate KCTV says a witness pointed out injuries on the victim’s neck that seemed suspicious, according to the court document. The victim also suffered a fresh wound in the middle of her throat.
He then was arrested and told a detective that he covered his wife’s nose and mouth to keep her from screaming, the statement said. He said he was depressed and couldn’t handle the caregiving and bills.
He said he also attempted to kill his wife while she was at a rehabilitation facility, but she woke up and told him not do that again, the statement said. He said he was going to try to kill his wife another time while she was hospitalized, but he didn’t get the chance because she was hooked up to several monitors.
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Vatican excommunicates ex-ambassador to U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, declares him guilty of schism
A firebrand conservative who became one of Pope Francis’ most ardent critics has been excommunicated by the Vatican.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who once served as the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S., was found guilty of schism. The Vatican’s doctrine office imposed the penalty after a meeting of its members on Thursday, a press statement said Friday.
The office cited Viganò’s “refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the church subject to him and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council,” as its reasoning for the ruling.
Viganò, who retired in 2016 at age 75 and was the papal envoy in Washington from 2011-2026, convulsed the Holy See with accusations of sex abuse in 2018, calling on Francis to resign.
Patrick Semansky/AP
In an 11-page letter, Viganò claimed that in 2013 he told Francis of the allegations of sex abuse against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. But, he wrote, the pontiff ignored that, and allowed McCarrick to continue to serve the church for another five years publicly. He said the pope should resign and subsequently branded him a “false prophet” and a “servant of Satan.”
In the letter, Viganò also made a number of ideological claims and was critical of homosexuals within Church ranks. He did not offer any proof for his statements.
The Vatican rejected the accusation of a cover-up of sexual misconduct and last month summoned Viganò to answer charges of schism and denying the pope’s legitimacy.
Viganò, who regarded the accusations “as an honor,” said he refused to take part in the disciplinary proceedings because he did not accept the legitimacy of the institutions behind it.
“I do not recognize the authority of the tribunal that claims to judge me, nor of its Prefect, nor of the one who appointed him,” he said in a statement issued last week, referring to the head of the doctrinal office, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, and to Francis.
Viganò restated his rejection of Vatican Council II, calling it “the ideological, theological, moral and liturgical cancer of which the (Francis’) ‘synod church’ is the necessary metastasis.”
He had not yet commented on the Vatican’s ruling on Friday.
McCarrick, the ex-archbishop of Washington, D.C., was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2019 after an internal Vatican investigation found he sexually molested adults as well as children.
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The U.S. jobs market cooled in June but remains solid, raising the odds that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by year-end.
The economy added 206,00 jobs last month, in line with analyst forecasts, and unemployment edged up to 4.1%. The data follows a surprisingly strong 272,000 increase in May.
A modest slowdown in hiring and wage growth could increase the Fed’s confidence that inflation is trending closer to its 2% annual target, opening the door for policymakers to trim borrowing costs for consumers and businesses.
—This is a developing story.
Vatican excommunicates ex-ambassador to U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, declares him guilty of schism
Israel says it’s restarting stalled negotiations for a cease-fire deal in Gaza
Hiring in the U.S. slowed in June, raising hopes for interest rate cuts
Vatican excommunicates ex-ambassador to U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, declares him guilty of schism
Israel says it’s restarting stalled negotiations for a cease-fire deal in Gaza