Wife died by ingesting antifreeze before sentencing in husband's slaying: Officials

A Connecticut woman who was found dead hours before she was scheduled to be sentenced for killing her husband died by suicide after ingesting antifreeze, officials said Monday.

Linda Kosuda-Bigazzi, 76, was found dead at her home on July 24. Troopers responded to the house that morning after an individual reported they were at her residence but were unable to make contact with her, state police said at the time .

Her cause of death is ethylene glycol toxicity, according to the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Kosuda-Bigazzi had pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in March in the 2017 death of her husband, 84-year-old Pierluigi Bigazzi, according to the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice. Police found the University of Connecticut Health doctor and professor dead in the basement of the couple's Burlington home while responding to a welfare check call from his employer, who had not heard from him for several months, prosecutors said.

Kosuda-Bigazzi also pleaded guilty to first-degree larceny for continuing to receive her husband's pay following his death, according to the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice. Investigators found checks from her husband's employer were deposited into the couple's joint checking account from his death in July 2017 until the discovery of his body in February 2018, prosecutors said.

She was set to be sentenced to 13 years in prison under the plea deal, according to The Associated Press . Her hearing was scheduled for 2 p.m. the day she was found dead.

"We were honored to be her legal counsel and did our very best to defend her in a complex case for the past six years," her attorney, Patrick Tomasiewicz, said in a statement last month following her death. "She was a very independent woman who was always in control of her own destiny."

ABC News has reached out to the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice for comment on the case.

Kosuda-Bigazzi had been out of jail while awaiting sentencing after posting more than $1.5 million in bail.

Her husband's death was ruled a homicide by blunt injuries to the head, according to the medical examiner's office.

Police found handwritten documents at the home in which she claimed she had killed her husband in self-defense, according to court records.

If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.