Alleged eye drop murder. A divorce attorney accused of murder. Plus, criminal investigations at sea.

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Good morning.

Andrea Canning (0:01)

It's the start of another workday for the Dateline team.

SPEAKER_1 (0:04)

There's like zero shell casings, there's no footprints, there's no tire tracks.

Andrea Canning (0:09)

Our producers are catching up on breaking crime news.

Caleb King (0:12)

Was there any other suspects?

Marissa Meyer (0:14)

They did find one witness.

Caitlin Cut (0:16)

That's the latest on that.

Andrea Canning (0:19)

Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Andrea Canning. It's September 17th, and here's what's on our docket.

In Cleveland, Ohio, courtroom battles upend the murder trial of a divorce attorney accused of fatally stabbing his own client, nurse and mom of four, Aliza Sherman.

Simon Doolittle (0:36)

So things have gotten a little bit heated.

Andrea Canning (0:39)

In Dateline Round Up, five months after the singer David was charged with the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, her family is now accusing his mother and managers of failing to protect her. And we'll bring you the latest on the new controversy surrounding the Lindsay Clancy holdout juror.

Caitlin Cut (0:57)

According to NBC Boston's reporting, last year, the juror's nephew filed a restraining order against him.

Andrea Canning (1:03)

Plus, crimes don't just happen on land. What happens when there's a murder at sea?

A Coast Guard special agent gives us the lowdown.

Caleb King (1:10)

It's not like a crime that happens at your local bank or grocery store, local house. The boat is the scene and it moves.

Andrea Canning (1:18)

But before all that, there is a case out of North Carolina we want to tell you about involving a former paramedic who's facing one of the most bizarre set of charges I think I've ever seen.

In September of 2018, the sudden death of 32-year-old North Carolina preschool teacher Stacy Hunsucker left her two daughters without a mother and her husband Joshua without a wife. On the first anniversary of her death, he posted a tribute to her on Facebook. NBC affiliate WCNC covered the story.

SPEAKER_7 (1:50)

He described Stacy as an awesome mother and how he and their two daughters choose to live happily because that's what she would want.

Andrea Canning (1:57)

Three months after that post, Joshua, a paramedic at the time, was arrested and charged with Stacy's murder. Prosecutors allege he poisoned her with tetrahydrosaline, a chemical found in eye drops. Joshua Hunsucker has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.

Jury selection was set to begin in his trial last week, but a judge ruled the trial should be postponed. Here to bring us up to speed on the reason for the delay and on some other unique charges Hunsucker is facing is Dateline producer Marissa Meyer. Marissa, thank you for being here.

Marissa Meyer (2:32)

Thank you so much for having me.

Andrea Canning (2:34)

Marissa, start by giving us some background on the couple at the heart of this case.

Marissa Meyer (2:38)

So Stacy was, as you said, a young mom. She had worked at a preschool in Charlotte, North Carolina. According to her obituary, she was an active member of her church.

Her husband, Joshua, or Josh, who is now 41, he was working as a flight paramedic providing emergency medical care to patients transported by helicopter. The couple had been married for eight years and they had two young daughters together.

Andrea Canning (3:07)

Take us back to September 23rd, 2018, the day Stacy died. Marissa, what happened?

Marissa Meyer (3:13)

So what we know of that day really comes from the probable cause affidavit, and Hunsucker found his wife not breathing in their home, and she ended up dying from cardiac arrest. There was no autopsy, her Joshua's request, and Stacy's remains were cremated. It's important to note, Stacy had been having a number of health problems in the years before her death, including problems with her heart. And according to a GoFundMe campaign started by one of her friends, Stacy had been having issues since the birth of the couple's first daughter in 2013

Andrea Canning (3:51)

Marissa, when did police start to suspect that Stacy's death was not from natural causes, and that something more sinister might have happened?

Marissa Meyer (4:00)

So interestingly, the investigation actually began within the North Carolina Department of Insurance. And a spokesperson for that office told NBC News that after Stacy's death, Stacy's mother contacted them. And she said she was suspicious of the circumstances surrounding Stacy's death and of the fact that Hunsucker received over $200,000 from two life insurance policies belonging to Stacy.

So that's when the North Carolina Department of Insurance decided to start investigating.

Andrea Canning (4:32)

So what did they uncover, the investigators?

Marissa Meyer (4:34)

Well, remember there was no autopsy. So investigators didn't have a body to examine or exhumed, but what they did have was some of Stacy's blood. According to the probable cause affidavit, Stacy had been an organ donor and prior to her cremation, a sample of her blood had been preserved, as is the normal process of possible organ donation. The affidavit states that the blood sample was sent to a lab for testing and came back positive for a chemical called Tetrahydrosaline which is found in eye drops.