{"id":19354,"date":"2020-08-22T22:48:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-23T02:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insurancenewsnet.com\/?post_type=oarticle&p=5710528"},"modified":"2020-08-22T22:48:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-23T02:48:00","slug":"prosecutors-massachusetts-man-killed-wife-for-400k-life-insurance-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2020\/08\/22\/prosecutors-massachusetts-man-killed-wife-for-400k-life-insurance-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutors: Massachusetts Man Killed Wife For $400K Life Insurance Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nEagle-Tribune (North Andover, MA)<\/span><\/div>\n
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Aug. 22–LONDONDERRY — Prosecutors trying to convict William Argie, 48, of killing his wife last year are building their case on a broken marriage and a murder-for-hire attempt, among other substantial troubles, according to new court documents.<\/p>\n

The documents request that a judge allow certain evidence at trial, including personal details about William Argie’s life with the victim — his wife of 13 years, Maureen.<\/p>\n

Police publicly identified Maureen Argie, 41, soon after finding her strangled to death April 4, 2019 in the Londonderry home she shared with her husband and their two young children, a boy and a girl both in elementary school.<\/p>\n

Her husband was arrested two months later and eventually charged with purposeful first-degree murder, an alternative count of reckless second-degree murder, and falsifying evidence.<\/p>\n

William Argie has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is scheduled for a 10-day trial to begin in January 2021.<\/p>\n

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Details of the case have remained largely hidden from public view in sealed court documents.<\/p>\n

However, Senior Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinckley and Assistant Attorney General Heather Cherniske wrote in recent, unsealed documents, about the Argie’s “imminent divorce” and “deepening financial troubles.”<\/p>\n

Not only was there talk of divorce, according to prosecutors, but Maureen consulted a divorce lawyer, made plans with friends and family members to sell the Londonderry home, and planned to live with the children apart from her husband.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors argue that Maureen was afraid of her husband, who knew about the impending separation.<\/p>\n

As proof, they want a judge to allow as evidence a five-minute recorded phone call between Maureen and a Londonderry police officer from March 30, 2019 — five days before she was killed.<\/p>\n

During the call she expressed concerns about her husband, noting that the situation with him was “tense.”<\/p>\n

She made the call “in order to ensure that the emergency line to police was operational ‘in case something happens,’ in order to ‘protect herself,'” according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Two days later, April 1, 2019, she’s said to have expressed similar worry to her father — specifically that her husband was monitoring her cell phone.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors go on in court documents to describe William Argie as a gambling addict whose family was unsuccessful in intervening a year before Maureen was killed.<\/p>\n

Court paperwork says, “the day after his wife’s murder, Argie was tracked down to a casino in Connecticut, where he was found gambling” after a suicide attempt.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors believe his deepening financial crisis leading up to the incidents in question are also relevant.<\/p>\n

They say William Argie lost his longtime job as a physicians assistant and was unable to find consistent employment to pay off mounting debts.<\/p>\n

He was being chased by creditors, was on the verge of filing for personal bankruptcy, and continued to gamble, according to documents.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say William Argie was motivated to kill his wife for her $400,000 life insurance policy, of which he was the sole beneficiary.<\/p>\n

A man he gambled with, James Timbas, is said to have confirmed the theory when he contacted police after hearing of Maureen’s death.<\/p>\n

According to Timbas, William Argie would complain about his wife and their relationship when he gambled, as well as how he “hated her and wanted to get rid of her.”<\/p>\n

He claims that several weeks before Maureen was found dead, William Argie offered him a share of his wife’s insurance policy if he helped kill her.<\/p>\n

According to Timbas, William Argie said, “I’m done with her. I’m going to (expletive) kill her, and I’m going to collect the money.”<\/p>\n

When Timbas said he wouldn’t help, he was offered a smaller amount of money to find a “hit man” to commit the murder, which Timbas said he also declined.<\/p>\n

All attorneys involved with the case are scheduled to convene in court before the end of the year, to assure the COVID-19 pandemic and a backlog of cases have not impacted the set trial date.<\/p>\n

A judge will also rule on the prosecutorial requests for permitted evidence.<\/p>\n

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(c)2020 The Eagle-Tribune (North Andover, Mass.)<\/p>\n

Visit The Eagle-Tribune (North Andover, Mass.) at www.eagletribune.com<\/p>\n

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read the original article at insurancenewsnet.com <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eagle-Tribune (North Andover, MA) Aug. 22–LONDONDERRY — Prosecutors trying to convict William Argie, 48, of killing his wife last year are building their case on a broken marriage and a murder-for-hire attempt, among other...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19354"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}