The search warrant affidavits said the Gash family had financial problems, largely because of restitution the wife was forced to pay for fraud and forgery convictions.
Gail Christine Hutchinson Gash, 50, was charged April 1 with first-degree murder in the death of her husband, 48-year-old Donald Larry Gash, chief of the Etowah-Horse Shoe Fire Department. She is being held in the Henderson County jail under no bond.
At the time of her husband's death, Gail Gash was serving five years probation for a 2001 conviction for six counts of obtaining property by false pretenses.
She also had lost a job with the Henderson County Department of Social Services after being investigated for food stamp fraud, which added to the family's financial stress, court documents said.
Donald Larry Gash had a life insurance policy worth $150,000 that named his wife as the beneficiary, court documents said. The Gash residence, more than 20 acres with an estimated tax value of $225,4000, was willed to the chief's children, Donn Gash and Jennifer Leslie Gash.
In three search warrants filed in May, authorities gave their reasons for suspecting Gail Gash and the Gashes' son, Donn Edward Gash, 31, who has not been charged. The search warrants contain sections titled ``facts to establish probable cause,'' in which authorities outline their evidence.
Court documents also said Gash's wife ``was unhappy in her life and marriage. In the demise of her husband, Donald Larry Gash, she stood to gain freedom from the relationship and financial gain from life insurance money.''
Documents filed in May said a cousin of the fire chief, who reported him missing March 26, said Gash told her ``he was having marital problems. He said if anything happened to him to suspect his wife and son.''
Gail Gash had attempted to kill her husband ``on two previous occasions, by choking him with a cord and smothering him with a pillow,'' the cousin told deputies, according to the documents, and Don Gash ``made the same statement to other witnesses, who were interviewed by detectives.''
Henderson County sheriff's deputies found the fire chief's body on March 27 near his family's home. His head, arms and legs were found March 28 scattered along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Buncombe County.
Investigators said Gash probably was killed the night of March 24. His torso was found in a plastic storage container near the barn at his residence.
Detectives are continuing to investigate the slaying, said Sheriff George H. Erwin Jr.
But all of the physical evidence in the Gash case remains at the understaffed State Bureau of Investigation office in Raleigh, still awaiting laboratory testing, Erwin said.
Information from: Times-News
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