Featured Image Credit: Orange County Jail
Topics: Crime, True crime, US News
Katherine Sidnell
A man has been accused of murdering his wife, after she ‘refused’ to go on a reality TV show.
Prosecutors claim that David Tronnes, 55, wanted to appear on the TV show ‘Zombie House Flipping’, in a desperate bid to save his home.
However, the Florida man denies this accusation of murder and has pleaded not guilty in court.
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Tronnes and his wife Shanti Cooper-Tronnes, 39, had been married for just over a year at the time of her tragic death.
As the ‘sole breadwinner’ in the home, she worked as a financial and accounting consultant while her husband was unemployed.
Despite this, Tronnes bought their Florida home in cash, paying $600,000 for the 4000 square foot property and opting to keep his wife’s name off the deed.
Prosecutor Michael Smith would later allege Tronnes was desperate to take part in Zombie House Flipping as it was a ‘lifeline’ for the 55-year-old.
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Similar to other property shows, the reality series involved renovating the home before selling it to make a quick profit.
The legal expert went on, adding that the unemployed man thought he could increase his home’s value by thousands of dollars by being on the show.
However, the couple need to agree to the TV appearance.
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Unconvinced though, Cooper-Tronnes walked out of initial talks and was found dead in a bathtub, just a week later.
After the accountant’s body was discovered at their Orlando home in 2018, her husband was later arrested on a charge of first-degree murder.
As the trial continued, the court also heard how the mom-of-one met her untimely death.
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According to prosecutors, the would-be-reality-star told investigators that his wife had fallen after ‘passing out’ in the tub.
Continuing to deny any wrongdoing, he would later claim that he found his wife face down in the bathtub in the early hours of the morning.
However, a medical examiner would later state that Cooper-Tronnes had succumbed to blunt-force trauma to her head.
Tragically, the mom also had a ‘huge wound’ on her face, bruising around her neck and had also been strangled during a ‘violent attack’.
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Following her death, her eight-year-old has been attending courts with proceedings restarting after Tronnes was found fit to stand trial.
Previously, the 55-year-old had been unable to appear ‘due to ongoing manifestations of the diagnosis of schizophrenia’.
Though two psychiatrists agreed on the diagnosis, a judge has since ruled that Tronnes should return after treatment at the state hospital.