Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 05.27.24

Episode Date: May 27, 2024

Senior citizen kills wife in the hospital because he cannot afford her medical bills. Dad threatens daughter's Uber driver with a gun.  For more crime and justice news go to crimeonline.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Alert, I'm Nancy Grace. Breaking crime news now. Ellen Wiggs admitted to a Missouri hospital for a new dialysis port. Husband Ronnie Wiggs stays with her. Just before midnight, hospital staff gets an alert. Wiggs has no heartbeat. Doctors fight to resuscitate her. When they fail, husband Ronnie Wiggs says, I did it. I killed her. I choked her. Nancy Wiggs later admits that he could not afford his wife's medical bills and that this wasn't the first time he tried to kill her. Wiggs describes trying to choke Ellen in her sleep during a previous hospital stay and not following through. Ellen Wiggs woke up and told her husband not to do

that again. In his second attempt, Wiggs choked Ellen with one hand while covering her nose and mouth with the other to prevent her from screaming. Ronnie Wiggs, 75, now charged with murder too. Sean Hollenbeck terrified when he notices his 13-year-old daughter missing from her bedroom. He reports her missing and carefully watches the street outside their Florida home, praying she returns. When he sees his daughter getting out of a car, he races outside, draws a gun, and forces the driver onto the ground. The kidnapper turns out to be an Uber driver Hollenbeck's daughter paid to get home after sneaking out for a party with friends. The innocent Uber driver does not take kindly to being held at gunpoint. Now Hollenbeck's charged with false imprisonment and ag assault. So he's headed to jail and the

daughter's headed to what? Time out? More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Limley. In the case of a woman accused in the poisoning death of her husband before publishing a children's book on grief, a Utah judge has now postponed a hearing to decide whether prosecutors have sufficient evidence to move forward with a trial. For the latest, we turn to Sydney Sumner with Crime Online.

The hearing was postponed until June 18th through the 20th by Judge Richard Morazek after the prosecution stated that they would want three days to present their case against Corey Richens, whose defense attorney maintains that she is innocent. The 33-year-old Richens stands accused of aggravated murder in addition to other charges following her husband's fentanyl overdose death in March 2022 at their Park City, Colorado home. The prosecution claims that she put five times the fatal amount of the synthetic opioid in a drink that her 39-year-old husband, Eric Richens, then drank. Prosecutors claim she attempted to murder him on Valentine's Day that same year by giving him a spiked sandwich. Prosecutors claim in court documents that Corey Richens was having an affair at the time of her husband's death and wanted to leave him, but she was afraid she might lose custody of their children and run into financial trouble after a divorce. They claim

she killed him because she saw a future with her lover and for financial gain. The mother of three self-published her children's book, Are You With Me?, in the months before her arrest in May of last year. The book is about a dying father who, after receiving angel wings, is keeping watch over his small son. Prosecutors may use the book to paint Eric Richens' death as a premeditated murder with a sophisticated cover-up. Those who may be called as witnesses in the June hearing include a housekeeper who says she sold Corey Richens the drugs, friends of Eric Richens who have related phone conversations from the day prosecutors say he was first poisoned by his wife of nine years, and relatives of the defendant and her late husband.

Skye Lazaro, the defense lawyer, has maintained that the evidence against her client is circumstantial and suspect. In the midst of a legal dispute over Eric Richens' inheritance in an associated assault case, Lazaro implied that the housekeeper had reason to lie in order to get leniency in response to drug charges. Also in recent days, Kuri Richens was convicted on misdemeanor charges after being accused of attacking one of her husband's sisters shortly after he died. The Missouri Department of Corrections has announced the death of a man found guilty of killing seven women over four decades in Kansas City, Missouri. Once again, Crime Online, Sidney Sumner. 62-year-old Terry Blair was serving time at the Potosi Correctional Center for six charges of

first-degree murder. He was found unconscious in his prison cell and transported to a hospital. According to the prison's department, hospital staff later pronounced him dead. An autopsy on Blair's body was scheduled. Blair's violent past was extensive. He was found guilty of killing a woman in 1982, a crime for which he served 21 years. When he was arrested for the six women's killings that occurred between July and September of 2004, Blair was already on probation. The victim's bodies were discovered in a high-crime area of Kansas City. Blair was also under suspicion for the deaths of two other women, but those charges were later dropped. Thanks, John. Antonia Toni Padilla lives next door to her senior parents in Silver City, New Mexico. She acts as their full-time caretaker. Toni's having a hard time at the remembrance day

of her daughter's death, not long after her boyfriend also passed away. Her other daughter, Jessica, drops her off to visit a friend around 1 p.m. and waits for mom to call to pick her up. That call never comes. Daughter Jessica knocks on the door. Tony's friend says she left on foot around 3 p.m. Due to intense New Mexico heat outdoors, the Padillas are worried. Tony never comes home that night.

Her family searches the area where she was last seen and calls local hospitals. No sign of Tony. Tony, age 58, is 5'3 and only weighed about 100 pounds. She has beautiful long brown hair and brown eyes. Tony Padilla now missing nearly four years. If you have info, please contact Silver City, New Mexico PD, 575-388-8840. For the latest crime and justice news, go to CrimeOnline.com. With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace. This is an iHeart Podcast.