WARREN, Ohio – Claudia Hoerig is accused of killing her husband in 2007, then immediately fleeing to Brazil. She was brought back to the U.S. in January and confessed to fatally shooting her husband because he sexually and mentally abused her, according to WJW.
She spoke to Trumbull County Sheriff Detective Mike Yannucci and Deputy U.S. Marshal Bill Boldin moments after she arrived back in Ohio.
“I was laying down, I got up really fast and I shot at him,” Claudia Hoerig told detectives.
She said she killed her husband, Air Force Reserve Major Karl Hoerig because he sexually and mentally abused her.
“I didn’t like his games because like I told you I am a very conservative woman,” Claudia Hoerig told investigators during her videotaped interview.
Karl Hoerig’s family and friends say Claudia Hoerig’s allegations are not true.
“I do not believe it,” said Larry Diemand, a longtime friend of Karl Hoerig and his family. “This is what she is saying as her defense. It’s unbelievable.”
Claudia Hoerig smiled and laughed during some of the interview. She said she had nothing to hide.
She told the investigators she bought a gun in 2007 because she planned to kill herself. She said she found out she was pregnant and when she told her husband, he was angry. She said he locked himself in the bedroom and went to take a shower. She said she started drinking and got her gun. She then waited for him.
“He opened the door and saw me with a gun to my head and no reaction,” Claudia Hoerig said. “He kept staring at me.”
She said she told him she was going to kill herself and she claims he told her to go to the basement so she wouldn't get blood on the paintings.
She said that’s when she shot him.
“I got very angry,” Claudia Hoerig said. “If he hadn’t said that I would be dead and he would be alive.”
Hoerig contends she tried to kill herself but ran out of bullets.
She is being held in the Trumbull County jail on a $10 million bond. She is due back in court next month.
