Wisconsin man accused of killing his wife and claiming she shot herself

FAIRBANKS, Wis. (TCN) — A 39-year-old man stands accused of fatally shooting his wife but claiming she was the one who took her own life.

According to the Shawano County Sheriff’s Office, on April 11, 2016, deputies responded to a home after James Radford reported that his wife, Sabrina Radford, shot herself. Investigators were initially unable to determine the cause of death.

Per a criminal complaint reviewed by WLUK-TV, Radford told police he found out his wife had been unfaithful, and he said he would divorce her. Radford reportedly said his wife “went back upstairs and came back down” before telling Radford, “I am not going to live without you.” Radford allegedly said his wife placed the gun on her chest and “pulled the trigger with her thumb.”

However, according to WLUK, the Wisconsin Crime Lab examined the gun, and there wasn’t any blood or blowback material on the muzzle. The victim also reportedly “had no blood on her chest area when EMS first started CPR,” which contradicts Radford’s claim that he performed CPR on her before responders arrived.

Responding officers allegedly noticed Radford didn’t have much blood on him or his clothes, “which they thought unusual for someone performing CPR.”

Nine years after her death, the sheriff’s office announced in a May 13 news release that they identified Radford as the primary suspect in his wife’s death. On April 15, Radford was arrested and booked into the Shawano County Jail on a charge of first-degree reckless homicide. His bond was set at $800,000.

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