A 92-year-old Goodyear man was arrested and accused of killing his wife by stabbing her multiple times in the neck with a "kitchen knife after an argument over investment funds," court documents said.
John Biggs Jr. was charged with first-degree murder, according to court records.
Goodyear police arrived at Biggs’ home on Aug. 24 after the couple’s son reported his mother’s death.
The son told investigators he came in from out of state to check on his father after he received some concerning phone calls and messages over the previous weeks, according to court documents.
There, he discovered his mother, 89-year-old Jane Biggs, dead inside their bedroom, according to court records.
Goodyear police have not publicly identified the wife, but her Aug.
23 death was ruled a homicide, Maricopa County Medical Examiner records said.
The wife’s family urged the court to keep John Biggs in custody, stating that he had no family or other ties to Arizona and worried he was a flight risk, according to court documents.
Biggs had his first appearance on Aug. 29 when a Maricopa County judge ordered him to be held with a $1 million secured bond.
Husband suspected of killing wife over money
Biggs' son told investigators his father claimed Jane Biggs had stolen large amounts of money from his account and that he appeared “overly paranoid and delusional,” he told investigators.
When he arrived at their Goodyear home, he found Biggs sitting in the living room. Biggs told his son not to enter the bedroom and that he had stabbed his wife, according to court documents.
The son found her lying in the bed with “a large amount of blood around her body,” documents said.
Police described in court records that the wife was wearing a nightgown and lying crossways in the bed with injuries on her neck, hands and arms.
She had blood pooling towards her back onto the bed, police described in court records.
Police found a 5-inch kitchen knife blade covered in a “dry red substance consistent with blood,” according to court documents.
John Biggs admitted to investigators he stabbed Jane Biggs “three or four times in the neck on the night of August 23,” documents said.
He said he grabbed the kitchen knife, walked into the bedroom and confronted his wife about his investment accounts, according to court records.
He told police he became “enraged” and stabbed her in the neck, documents said.
Biggs told investigators his wife had deleted his friends' contacts, emailed “derogatory things about him” and claimed she stole “a large amount of money from his accounts.”
He said he believed he had lost everything and had “nowhere else to go,” according to court records.
Biggs left the bedroom, took “a large amount of pills and sat down on his recliner in the living room hoping to die,” documents said.
The next morning, Biggs was woken up by his son, he told investigators.
Police collected his clothing, stating it had “small red substance consistent with blood spatter.” Biggs was taken to the hospital and later transported to a Maricopa County jail.
Lawyer says Biggs' behavior was ‘odd’
Biggs’ attorney Zac Murphy attempted to lower his client's bond to $25,000 during a court appearance on Aug. 29. He stated Biggs had no previous criminal history and had a 25-year career as a state trooper in Maryland.
Murphy called the $1 million bond “inappropriate.”
“The facts and circumstances of this case, where there appears to be some odd behavior that didn’t exist before,” Murphy told the judge.
Several times throughout the hearing, Biggs attempted to tell the judge "how it all came about," and had to be stopped by his attorney.
Brooke Gaunt, a prosecutor with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, said they were concerned he was a danger to others and himself.
“Given the serious nature of these charges, we believe a bond is appropriate to ensure community safety,” Gaunt said.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 92-year-old killed wife over money argument, Goodyear police say
