‘I’m very surprised I got out of the marriage alive’: First husband of five-times-married Texas woman accused of poisoning her latest spouse with insulin says she’s a ‘bad penny’ who threatened him during their divorce
- Sarah Hartsfield is accused of poisoning her husband Joseph with insulin
- Her first husband Titus Knoernschild said he’s surprised he survived
The second husband of the five-times-married woman now accused of poisoning her latest spouse with insulin says he’s ‘very surprised’ he made it out of their marriage alive.
Sarah Hartsfield has been indicted on first degree murder charges for allegedly killing her diabetic husband, Joseph, by giving him too much insulin.
It was her fifth marriage, and she is also being investigated for shooting dead a former fiancé, David Bragg, who died in 2018.
Sarah Hartsfield, 48, allegedly killed her diabetic fifth husband with insulin in January. Pictured: Hartsfield at the time of her February arrest
Joseph Hartsfield was Sarah’s fifth husband. The two married in February 2022 – a year after her fourth divorce
Now, one of her ex-partners is speaking out to reveal his fears that she was going to kill him when they were together.
‘I’m very surprised I got out of the marriage alive,’ Titus Knoernschild told NBC News in an interview this week after her indictment on murder charges.
He was worried she would kill him for his $200,000 life insurance policy.
The pair were married between 1993 and 1996 after falling in love as high school sweethearts.
After their divorce, he said she would randomly pop up and even call his new wife.
‘She was like a bad penny — every time you’d turn around, she’d be there.
‘She doesn’t do it to confront you. She does it to remind you she’s there.’
Titus Knoernschild, Hartsfield’s first husband, has since come forward in relief his ex-wife was behind bars and could no longer hurt anyone else. The two were high school sweethearts and married straight after high school before divorcing two years later in January 1996. Pictured: Titus Knoernschild
She fatally shot her ex-fiancé in 2018 in ‘self-defense,’ but police have since reopened the case after receiving new information
Hartsfield married four more times after their 1996 divorce, and was also briefly engaged at one stage to Bragg.
Her other three husbands – Michael Traxler, Christopher Donohue and David George – are all still alive, but she was involved in domestic disputes during her marriages to all three.
In 2018, she fatally shot Bragg in their home. She claimed it was an act of self-defense and was never charged.
In light of her most recent husband’s death, police are now reinvestigating that case.
None of them have spoken yet publicly at length about their marriages. Joseph Hartsfield died in January this year.
According to police, she poisoned him with insulin then ignored his glucose alarm, sending him into a diabetic coma.
Sarah’s son, Ryan Donohue from her third marriage with Christopher Donohue, has been vocal about his mother’s arrest. He recalled being abused by her as a child and skipping school due to extreme bruises