Topics: News, US News, Crime, True crime, Netflix
A woman who featured on a Netflix true crime documentary after killing her husband has been granted parole.
Linda Couch appeared on Netflix's I Am a Killer, with her episode airing in January 2020.
In 1985, she was given a life sentence for the murder of her husband, Walter Couch, at their home in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Couch was 30 years old at the time and fatally shot Walter, 35, in October 1984, before rolling his body up in a rug.
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Police said that after concealing the body in the basement, Couch enlisted the help of her children, a neighbor, and her father-in-law to dig a hole in the backyard.
Lying about the reason, according to Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, she told them it was because of 'drainage issues and planting grass seed'.
In a chilling twist, that meant that Walter's father had unknowingly helped to dig a hole to bury his own son.
But he would go on to make a horrifying discovery when he found Walter's body in the hole, according to WKRC-TV.
Couch would later be accused of forging the deeds to her home, attempting to transfer the ownership over to herself, and allegedly lying to her family about where Walter was.
She claimed that she had suffered abuse at the hands of her husband in the years leading up to the killing.
In 2021, Roxanne Wagner, one of Couch's children, acknowledged the claims that she made about the alleged abuse in an interview with WXIX-TV, though she added that she still thought that her mom should be in prison.
Now, Couch, 72, has been granted parole after serving decades in prison and several parole hearings.
According to WKRC, the Ohio Parole Board approved Couch's bid to get out of jail under one condition - that she be placed in a nursing home in order to continue cancer treatment.
However, Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich told WXIX-TV that she was 'disappointed' in the decision to grant Couch parole.
Pillich said: “The parole board can make whatever decision it wants, but as a citizen, I’m a little disappointed.
“What she did was cold and callous. This was premeditated murder.”
The prosecutor added: “There was no remorse. It was always about her, what was best for her. Not even her kids. Just her.”
Pillich continued: “She bought the gun. She changed the deed to the house. She checked the insurance.
"She sent her children away for the night. Step by step - this was planned. It was cold.”
