Music teacher Kristine Fitzhugh (born 1947) was murdered on May 5, 2000 in her home in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

by her husband Kenneth Carroll Fitzhugh Jr. (19432012). After Kenneth Fitzhugh received a call from Kristine's workplace saying that she had failed to meet her classes, he and two coworkers went to the family house, where they found Kristine dead at the bottom of the basement stairs.

Crime

Kenneth suggested Kristine fell on the stairs because she was wearing a pair of dangerously unsteady shoes, but water-diluted blood in the kitchen showed that she had been killed therehit on the head seven times and strangledthen placed at the bottom of the stairs. Kenneth, a real estate agent, claimed he was miles away inspecting property at the time of the murder, but cell phone records showed that he received a call around the time of the murder while in the Fitzhughs' neighborhood. A search of Kenneth's car found clothing, shoes and other items stained with Kristine's blood.

Sentence

In 2001, Kenneth Fitzhugh was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life. The motive for the murder is uncertain. Kenneth may have been angry that Kristine was about to reveal to her eldest son that his biological father was not Kenneth; a DNA test conducted after the murder confirmed this. In addition, had he not been convicted, Kenneth would have collected $96,000 from Kristine's life insurance and some or all of her $900,000 estate.

Aftermath

Fitzhugh was paroled on compassionate grounds in February 2012 due to

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

, and died in Palo Alto on October 27, 2012, at age 69.

References

External links

Kristine Fitzhugh murder story archive
from Palo Alto Weekly News {{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzhugh, Kristine 1947 births 2000 deaths People murdered in California People from Palo Alto, California American murder victims Deaths by person in California 2000 murders in the United States 2000 in California Deaths by strangulation in the United States Uxoricides