Wife charged with using mushrooms to kill her husband, Indiana cops say
A woman walking her dog discovered a body in a ditch on the side of a road in Indiana in April, the Indy Star reported.
Authorities discovered it was the body of avid cycler David Fouts, 50, of Pendleton, whose stomach contained chunks of poisonous mushrooms, according to People.
Now Fouts’ wife and a friend are charged in his death, officials say.
Fouts had cuts on his hands and duct tape residue on his wrists and ankles, according to a probable cause affidavit filed last week. Based on the autopsy, it was determined that his body had been moved after his death, the Star reported.
The mushrooms found in Fouts’ stomach contained “muscarine, a well-known mushroom toxin,” according to the documents.
Katrina Fouts, the victim’s wife, told investigators that he had threatened suicide several times over the years and she “felt guilty for not having done enough to help him,” according to the affidavit. Investigators searched through her phone and found she made no attempts to contact her husband two days before his body was found, documents state.
Her web history showed she searched things like “Indiana homicide laws” and “how to pass a lie detector test,” according to the affidavit. She made those searches after she was interviewed by investigators - two days after her husband’s body was found.
Katrina Fouts’ daughter, Carrie Gentry, attended a dinner at their home a few days prior to David Fouts’ body being found and said he “seemed just fine and as he usually was,” the documents state.
Katrina Fouts went to visit a close family friend and former law enforcement officer, Terry Hopkins, three days prior to the discovery of David’s body, according to the affidavit. That day, Hopkins bought several items from a store, including “microfiber cleaning cloths, duct tape, six-inch diagonal cutters, utility knives/box cutters and cleaning gloves,” the documents state.
A day later, Katrina Fouts called her husband’s employer “to arrange for his time off,” according to documents. During a later interview with investigators, Katrina Fouts said she believed “two people had killed David Fouts.”
In another interview, Katrina Fouts denied having any involvement in her husband’s death. Investigators then interviewed Hopkins and found several cuts and scratches on him that appeared to “be consistent with fingernail scratches.”
Katrina Fouts called investigators a month after David Fouts’ body was found, and investigators said “she had to know, at that point, that we knew she had killed David Fouts. After a few moments of silence, she said, ‘I know,’” the affidavit says.
Hopkins and Katrina Fouts were arrested and charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder and failure to report a corpse, according to People. Fouts also was charged with false informing, the outlet said.
