First husband of serial bride accused of murder speaks out
‘I’m very surprised I got out of marriage alive’: First husband of five-time married Texas woman accused of poisoning her latest husband with insulin says she’s a ‘bad penny’ who killed him during their threatened divorce
- Sarah Hartsfield is accused of poisoning her husband Joseph with insulin
- Her first husband Titus Knoernschild said he was surprised he survived
The second husband of the five-time married woman now accused of poisoning her newest husband with insulin says he is “very surprised” to have come out of their marriage alive.
Sarah Hartsfield has been charged with first-degree murder for allegedly killing her diabetic husband, Joseph, by giving him too much insulin.
It was her fifth marriage and she is also under investigation for the shooting death of a former fiancé, David Bragg, who died in 2018.
Sarah Hartsfield, 48, allegedly killed her fifth diabetic 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 fear that she would kill him when they were together.
“I am very surprised that I came out of the marriage alive,” Titus Knoernschild said NBC news in an interview this week following her murder charge.
He was afraid she would kill him for his $200,000 life insurance policy.
The couple married between 1993 and 1996 after falling in love as high school sweethearts.
After their divorce, he said she would randomly show up and even call his new wife.
“She was like a bad penny — every time you turned around, she’d be there.”
“She’s not doing it to confront you. She’s doing it to remind you she’s there.’
Titus Knoernschild, Hartsfield’s first husband, has since been relieved that his ex-wife was behind bars and unable to hurt anyone else. The two were high school sweethearts and married right out of high school before divorcing two years later in January 1996. In the photo: Titus Knoernschild
She fatally shot her ex-fiance in 2018 in ‘self-defense’, but police have since reopened the case after receiving new information
Hartsfield married four more times after their divorce in 1996, and was also briefly engaged to Bragg at one point.
Her other three husbands – Michael Traxler, Christopher Donohue and David George – are all still alive, but she was embroiled in domestic disputes during her marriage to all three.
In 2018, she shot and killed Bragg in their home. She claimed it was an act of self-defense and was never charged.
In light of the death of her most recent husband, police are now re-investigating that case.
None of them have spoken publicly about their marriage yet. Joseph Hartsfield passed away in January of this year.
According to police, she poisoned him with insulin and then ignored his glucose alert, sending him into a diabetic coma.
Sarah’s son, Ryan Donohue from her third marriage to Christopher Donohue, has spoken out about his mother’s arrest. He recalled being abused by her as a child and skipping school due to extreme bruising