Texas woman indicted for murder after husband dies of ‘suspicious illness,’ police say

A Texas woman whose husband died of a “suspicious illness” last month was indicted by a grand jury for felony murder on Friday, the Chambers County Sheriff’s Office announced. 

Sarah Jean Hartsfield, 48, was arrested on Friday and is being held on a $5 million bond. 

Her late husband, Joseph Hartsfield, was transported to the emergency room at Baytown Houston Methodist Hospital on the evening of Jan. 7. 

Staff at the hospital called 911 because they thought his illness was suspicious. Detectives arrived at the hospital and found “additional inconsistencies” in the story about Hartsfield’s illness. He later died of what Sheriff Brian Hawthorne believes was foul play. 

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“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,” Hawthorne said in a statement on Sunday. 

While Joseph Hartsfield’s manner of death was ruled a homicide, his cause of death has not yet been released.