A woman charged in Texas with killing her husband was previously involved in the 2018 shooting death of her former partner, prosecutors in Minnesota said this week while announcing that the older case has been reopened.
Sarah Jean Hartsfield, who went by the last name Donahue, was indicted Feb. 3 in Chambers County, Texas, on a felony murder charge, court documents show. She is being held on a $5 million bond.
The charge is connected to the Jan. 15 death of her husband Joseph Hartsfield, who died at Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital sfter a “suspicious illness,” Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said in a Facebook post. Deputies had been called to the hospital that day and launched an investigation after they were given inconsistent information.
Hawthorne said that the inconsistencies coupled with “other determining factors made the illness appear more suspicious in nature.”
Authorities have not said what led up to Joseph Hartsfield’s death, but Hawthorne said foul play is suspected. A cause of death was not been released.
“This is an active case and only limited details can be released at this time,” Hawthorne said in a statement. “I appreciate the hard work of the deputies and detectives who followed their instincts and identified the suspicious circumstances surrounding Mr. Hartfield’s death that could have been labeled as ‘death due to illness’ instead of murder.”
The sheriff told NBC affiliate KPRC of Houston that during the investigation, detectives learned that Sarah Hartsfield had been married five times and that some of her former spouses had died. Detectives were able to speak with three of her ex-husbands.
“Every relationship that it appears that she’s been in, everybody wants out of it because they fear for their life,” Hawthorne told the news station. “A number of them have either made the statement, ‘I needed out because I felt like my life was in danger,’ and some have found where their life was clearly in danger.”
Following the arrest, prosecutors in…
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