Amber Hilberling and Ana Trujillo both claim they didn't murder their spouses. Photos / AP
Amber Hilberling and Ana Trujillo both claim they didn't murder their spouses. Photos / AP
A woman who killed herself in prison after pushing her husband out of a 25th floor window can be heard protesting her innocence from beyond the grave in a chilling new documentary.
Mother-of-one Amber Hilberling, 25, from Oklahoma, features in an episode the documentary Women Who Kill, which reveals the shocking stories of female prisoners who were driven to murder, according to Daily Mail.
Amber, whose husband Josh died when she pushed him out of their apartment window 25 floors up following a violent row, maintains that she was acting in self defense on the show, which was filmed before she took her own life last October.
Amber, whose husband Josh (pictured together left and right with her son Levi) died when she pushed him out of their apartment window 25 floors up following a violent row. Photos / Facebook
The 5ft 5-tall prisoner describes the moments leading up to 6ft 6-tall US Air Force Veteran Josh's death, and how the pair argued and he attacked her, before she retaliated by pushing him.
The documentary, which features on Channel 4 in the UK, looks back at then 19-year-old Amber's trial, and includes chilling original CCTV footage of her admitting to her grandmother that she had pushed her husband out of the window.
In what would turn out to be her last televised words, Amber says that while her marriage was fiery, she believes that they could have had a happy ending.
"I've never tried to make it sound like he is the big bad wolf and I'm little Red Riding Hood that is running for her life, it wasn't like that," she says.
"We were both young and we were both selfish in our emotions because we were young, and I think if it had happened later on in life when we were both a little bit more grown up, I think it would have been happily ever after."
Mr Hilberling fell from the 25th floor of the tower and landed on a parking garage below. Photo / University Club Tower Tulsa Facebook
Amber, who married Josh when she was 18, was seven months pregnant when she was sentenced and her mother Rhonda now cares for her son Levi, five.
He appears in the program and regularly visited Amber along with her mother, before she killed herself in her cell at the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center, in Oklahoma.
One third of the world's female prison population is in America, with 5,000 of them serving time for murder.
The documentary looks at what pushes ordinary women to commit an act of violence.
Katherine Casey, author and journalist says: "Women almost never kill a stranger, in 99.9 per cent of the time the woman has a relationship with the victim."
THE CASE OF THE 'STILETTO KILLER'
Also featured in the first episode is Ana Trujillo, who met Stefan Andersson, 59, in 2012.
She moved in with him within weeks, as she explains: "He completely fell in love with me. He had a shoe fetish, he liked me wearing heels."
In 2013, they had an argument in the back of a taxi which she tearfully reported to the police as an assault.
Trujillo testified that she did not realize how badly she injured her boyfriend until she looked at her gore-covered hands. Photo / AP
Police then arrived at their home to discover Ana covered in blood after killing Stefan with a blue high heel, hitting him in the head 25 times
She was dubbed the "stiletto killer" and after a two week trial in 2014, the jury returned a verdict of second degree murder.
Crime scene evidence helped to convict her after experts proved that blood spatter patterns meant her version of events was very different to what the evidence showed.
They explained how the blood soiling her jeans supported the theory that she had been straddling Andersson rather than underneath him trying to fight for her life.
She now resides in Mountain View Prison in Texas after receiving a life sentence, and she isn't due for parole for another 30 years.
She is resolute as she insists: "I did not murder him, I loved him. I would never hurt him despite what it says. They just want to discredit me and make me the person I am not."
Where to get help:
• Lifeline: 0800 543 354 (available 24/7) • Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) (available 24/7) • Youthline: 0800 376 633 • Kidsline: 0800 543 754 (available 24/7) • Whatsup: 0800 942 8787 (1pm to 11pm) • Depression helpline: 0800 111 757 (available 24/7) • Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155 • Samaritans 0800 726 666 • If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
