Today, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph T. Deters announced his opposition to the possible parole of Linda Couch.  Couch is set for a parole hearing in March.

Couch was convicted of aggravated murder in the 1984 murder of her husband, Walter.  She was sentenced to life in prison.  Couch shot her husband in the head and then wrapped his body in a rug and buried him in their Price Hill backyard.

She enlisted the help of her three young children, a neighbor and her father-in-law for help with digging a hole in her backyard on the pretense of “drainage issues and planting grass seed.”

She repeatedly lied to Walter’s close family about his whereabouts.  She told her children that their father had left them.   She told her in-laws, who were very close to their son, that he was not home for various reasons.  Eventually, after more than a week, her in-laws got suspicious and her father-in-law, suspecting something odd about the backyard hole, went to the hole and discovered his deceased son.

After killing her husband and enlisting others to help with burying his body, she went on a spending spree and bought new furniture for her home.  She also forged the deed to their home and put the home in her name, took her children on vacation and tried to take out loans for additional funds.

Long-time Hamilton County Prosecutor’s support staff employee, Andy Nadel commented, “I have worked in this office for over 30 years.  One of my primary duties is to collect information for the prosecutors on their cases.

This case stands out among the thousands that I have reviewed as particularly gruesome.  Shooting her husband in the head is bad enough but then enlisting her innocent children and unsuspecting father-in-law and neighbor to dig a hole and help bury her husband’s body, is chilling.

Couch deserves every day of her life sentence and I hope that the community will join our office in opposing her possible parole.”

The community can log onto the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s website www.hcpros.org and go to parole watch to email the Ohio Parole Authority with their opposition to Couch’s release.