Hostage-Taker Gives Up After His Wife Dies
A man who took three women hostage at a courthouse and threatened to blow up the building surrendered Wednesday after releasing his captives and reporting that his wife had killed herself, police said.
Authorities said they were uncertain, pending an autopsy, whether Helen Firth had shot herself or had been shot by her husband, Kevin Patrick Firth, 30, who was taken into custody nearly 24 hours after the incident began.
Police said Mrs. Firth had smuggled guns and possibly explosives into the Mesa County Courthouse on Tuesday and slipped a pistol to her husband just before his hearing in a sexual assault case.
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