Police: KC man kissed sick wife, threw her from apartment building

Criste Reimer, 47, died Tuesday after she fell from the fourth story of her Plaza apartment building, and now her husband, 51-year-old Stanley Reimer, is facing a second-degree murder charge. Police say they were contacted by Criste Reimer's caregiver, who told them Reimer had several problems with her head and legs. Simply put, the caregiver said, she wouldn't have been able to climb over the balcony's railing.

About 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, police say, they questioned Stanley Reimer. They say he told them he was undergoing money troubles and couldn't afford to take care of her anymore. According to the court records, Reimer reportedly said he kissed his wife, picked her up and threw her from the balcony.

UPDATED: Joyce Tsai has a complete report on the case, with more details on Criste Reimer's medical condition and the couple's financial situation. She had a series of health problems, including uterine cancer. Probate records show her health-care cost $700 to $800 per week, and she had no health insurance.

UPDATED: Crimeblog.us has a post about Criste Reimer, tracking down posts that she apparently made on different sites. Here's a snip from one:

I . . . was told when I was seven years old that I would have the mentality of a seven year old for the rest of my life. What my teacher didn’t understand was that when she told my parents this I already had the mentality of a nine year old. So, even though I have had to battle other things in my life, I have gone on to graduate from high school, and complete a year of pre-med in college. Even when I broke my leg I was told that I would NEVER walk again. I told the doctor to just watch me.

UPDATED: More bloggers react. Here's a post from High On Moxie, a KC-based blogger. Some, such as Daily Kos and Obsidian Wings, are using the case as evidence of the health-care system's failures. (Not trying to leave our conservative and libertarian friends; I just didn't see them writing about this case.)

Link to a PDF of the probable cause.

Comments

[tasha]

I think they should charge him and throw his a**n jail forever. That was his wife for goodness sake. So what he could not afford her health bills. That was no reason to throw her off of a four story building. Then he has the balls to kiss her before he kills her. They should throw his a** off of a building.

[Ssgt]

They should put him away, But a good lawyer, is there such a thing, will aruge temporary insanity and they put him in a hospital where he will probably be out in 6 months. You have to love our system.

[Nick]

"You have to love our system."

It's not the system, but the lawyers that destroyed it.

[BeProudAmerica]

First, I am not backing the guy or anything, but does anyone know if his wife, Criste, was in on the plan and it was more of an assisted suicide and not just a murder?

Again, just a question, not defending the guy.

[wyomingsundancer]

What he did was reprehensible. However, this is a good argument for the failure of our health system. A national health care has its problems, but at least in a situation like this a person is not faced with bills they cannot possibly pay, constant harrassing calls from various collection agencies, denial of service for even basic medical services, etc.

[The_Golfer]

BeProud - I have to agree, this could have been assisted suicide.

And wyomingsundancer - yes, this shows the failure our the health system that has a cap on lifetime payouts.

[Nick]

"denial of service for even basic medical services, etc." - wyomingsundancer

You clearly do not know anyone who has escaped the British NHS.

[Cooper911]

i don't know maybe he had the right idea.. he was just kissing her A** goodbye.. :) does anyone else around here think that the fact that he threw his "wife from a Building" is kinda funny.. i mean you could make a movie on that title.. :)

[Searching]

or at least a country song.. maybe a blues song.

I agree with the fact that this could have been assisted suicide.

[Nick]

I have to admit it gave me a chuckle at first. Not because of the act, but, the completely insane rationalizations that people continually come up with when pressed.
Maybe it's just me, but, having an Airborne background makes me wonder how anyone could ever consider this a conceivable solution.

[observer]

I agree with beproud and wyoming. This guy may have been driven insane by a desperate situation. To the person who disparaged the British NHS, total reliance on the free market for health care creates situations like this. Are seniors and invalids in Europe forced to choose between food and medicine or housing and medicine?

[dkpnkc]

I'm sure the prosecutors know, at least I hope, on why this is a second degree case & not a first degree case. Isn't premediation shown by the act of picking her up & throwing her over the balcony? Or is he saying "I tripped"? I'm sure the act took more than a few seconds so he had time to think out exactly what he was doing.

I'm sorry his health bills were so high but the details in this article do not state why she didn't have insurance. Many individuals make the choice not to carry insurance & then when they loose the gamble they cry foul to the gov't.

He should hope I'm not part of the jury - IMO no one has the right to play God.

[El Duderino]

I doubt anyone would beg to be thrown off a building, as a method of assisted suicide.
Most people would choose overdosing on pain killers.

This story sickens me. His role as a husband was to comfort and protect his wife during her illness and instead he murdered her.

[james]

This is Republicans fault, if they had just let Hillary have her way with health care this would not have happened. To bad Michael Moore couldn't have included this story in "Sicko".

[Nick]

To the person who disparaged the British NHS, total reliance on the free market for health care creates situations like this. Are seniors and invalids in Europe forced to choose between food and medicine or housing and medicine? - observer

You are incorrect my friend. The free market did not create situations like this. Politicians did, by sticking their noses in it with HMO's and the other various, assorted, Insurance Industry handouts. The eliminated the competition. One need only roll back the clock as far as the 1970's to remember competitive bidding on group heath insurance and full family coverage for almost all full time employees. Not until we started passing laws making insurance mandatory and allowing insurance companies their own offices within state government did this become a problem.
As for the NHS, no, they do not have to choose between food and medicine. They can sit home and die if they cannot afford the treatments and medications one can recieve here as a matter of standard treatment. Either that or they can buy it on their own.
You might be interested to know, if you are over 65 there and loose kidney function requiring dialysis, you are going to die because you can't have it. Many cancer treatments here that are a matter of first course are not used there because they are too expensive. We will not even get into the numbers of people who die just waiting for critical surgeries.
Ever been in a London Hospital? It you were not sick when you walked in, you will be when you leave. They have the highest rate of Hospital infections in the free world. Their hospitals are filthy and their doctors are some of the worst. Why? Because their best go into private practices or come here where they make a good living.
If you want National Health Care, just look to Military and VA Health Services, or better yet, Prison Health Services. Then lower that standard times two due to lack of incentive or an unforgiving code of ethics.
NO Thank you to NHS. Period. It is a nightmare.

[Phyl]

Problem with health insurance in this county.
1. pre-existing conditions are not covered
2. limited coverage for illnesses
3. limited visits to health care professionals
4. lifetime limits on illnesses and payouts
5. high cost of coverage; mine cost $750 per month.

Competition has not helped, remember free enterprise means maximizing profit. Charging maximum amount the market will bear.

[Sage]

I would have at least picked up her carcass.

[66210]

Where was this guy before my ex-wife served me with divorce papers? I could've used his "services".

[JH]

I may be wrong, but aren't the apartments down near the Plaza kind of expensive? Wouldn't they have saved money if they had moved to a more affordable area? Then again, they may have been really close to her hospital. If anyone knows, please inform me about rent prices around there.

Also, I guess this guy didn't agree with the "in sickness and in health" part of his marriage vows. This is just so sad.

[james]

good point JH, if you live on the Plaza you've got some bucks.

[Sage]

Who gives a sh*t, honestly? I would hope that if I had that much suffering, and could not lift myself over a railing to off myself, that my friends and family would have the decency to do it for me.

[Onetime]

not all the places on the plaza are that much. I lived one block north of (I can't think of the road name!!!!) the street George Brett's is on. It was $530 a month. Shoot, I can't even think of the stores there.

[jalovsky]

so so sad. I can't even think of anything to add. I'm speechless. What would drive someone to do this knowing he's going to end up in prison. I say temporary insanity. I'll add the failure of our health care system to the reasons for this tragedy. What a way to start off my day reading about stuff like this.

[Sage]

Jalovsky - it's all fun and games - until it isn't.

[Debby]

This is not a justified article and argument for poor health care in our country. She was getting care. Obviously expensive but she wasn't paying for it even though she was being charged. She would of received care and died naturally owing those bills. A better argument would be for better mental health care for her idiot, criminal husband. With a property worth 20,000, with her dead, he probably inherits it. That was his real motive. The article makes it sound as if they weren't together. This is murder - period

[solomon]

we live in a country that a woman has a right to choose (and i won't say pro or con on that), but we don't have a right to die with dignity. if you've ever watched a loved one slowly deteriorate and become trapped in a life that is all pain and misery, while your finacinces are sucked into the blackhole that thrives on those type of situations, maybe you'd be more sympathetic to the guy. ever wiped a loved ones butt for a year or two, while the drug company keeping them alive is charging $500 an ounce for something like morphine? and for those saying she wasn't paying for the care, then you and I must be paying, cause it ain't free. where's the humanity in that?

A one bedroom at Plaza Point was a little under $700 a month about three years ago.

[El Duderino]

*solomon*

And just how is being thrown into off a building and into the street "dying with dignity"?

[Newbie]

If, and I mean "if", I was going to die from some slow horrible disease that made me a burden on family I would want to be put out of my and my family's misery. Remember me for who I was, not how I ended up.

Don't go to the "what if a cure came along scenario" how often does that happen and how far gone are you to go before the "miracle" will fix you?

I'm not saying throw me off a balcony....but I don't want to suffer and see my friends and family with THAT look in their eyes....do you guys "feel me" on this sentiment?

[The Zipper]

al quida prisoners and murders in this country are provided better health care than the rest of us get if we happen to be uninsured. what does that say about the good old USA?

[KC Brougham]

"what does that say about the good old USA?"

Get a job.

[jayhawker]

Maybe he had a song stuck in his head...go ahead and kiss her, go and kiss...GoodBye.

Not defending the guy either, but they said he was very distraught when police arrived before they named him a suspect. They could have planned it- extreme- very.

[El Duderino]

I think this guy would have made a better case for improving our health care system if he hadn't killed her.

I'll be the first to discuss the many failures of our system but there are many ways of coping besides murder.

[BeProudAmerica]

Ok, first I am not standing up for insurance compaines, I have had my go arounds with them myself trying to get them to pay a bill.

The point I would like to make is that we are just as much to blame about the medical health problems that we have as the insurance companies are. We all know people who run to the hospital or doctor for any little thing. And if you talk to anybody who has worked at an ER, they will tell you about people who stop in ER on a regular basis with problems that aren't there. But an ER is required to check them out and thus runs up the cost of health care. Again, I am not letting the insurance companies off the hook but do you realize how much are insurance costs would be if they paid every claim that was submitted?

[BeProudAmerica]

One other thing about the health care industry. We have a lot of people that are presecriptions drugs for things like ADHD, anxiety, etc. People used to go to the bar or drink at home to knock at edge off life, but now we have prescriptions drugs to take care of that, so essentially our health care system is helping pick up what used to be a bar tab. I just find it kind of ironic.

[mzjane]

I know Stan. Please remember to judge not, lest ye be judged also. Yes, this was a horrendous act in response to deep despair. Unless we've been there, we can't comprehend the destruction of our soul that occurs in a situation like this. Please keep him in your prayers.

Wow, I can certainly understand his dispair over his wife's medical problems and the lack of insurance, but geez, maybe HE should have been the one to jump off the balcony, instead of tossing his WIFE off the balcony. Medicaid/Medicare would have taken care of her medical expenses.

[Larry]

As soon as I read the brief the other night that she had been found after "falling," I figured this guy would be arrested quite soon.

He must have lost his mind to some degree. The women I had lunch with were wondering why he didn't just feed her an OD of painkillers instead.

[BlindWithPrideOfAmerica]

The only problem with the American healthcare system is all these annoying sick people. People who get sick should just go away and die.

[Larry]

Or he could have followed the Gingrich example and just divorced her.

[BlindWithPrideOfAmerica]

Or maybe they should just go to the bar.
If whiskey can't cure it there is no cure.

[Larry]

Anybody read Nick's screed from earlier this morning?

It's such a shame when people with an agenda choose facts selectively to distort the truth.

[El Duderino]

Larry,
I didn't read any facts in that post. One only needs to look up the fact sheets with the World Health Organization to see just where the US stands among other nations that dare impose that dreaded socialized medicine.

Seems that socialized medicine is good for people but bad for business. Which do you think writes the policy in America ?

All that said. It's no excuse for murdering your wife.

el dude....i don't think i said anywhere that he did the right thing by throwing her off a balcony, any manner he did it in would be considered in the us

[solomon]

el dude....just ask dr jack k

[mike]

At least in the photo, the guy looks to be a few emotions short of a soul... just my $.02

[Nick]

It's such a shame when people with an agenda choose facts selectively to distort the truth.- Larry

What agenda would that be Larry? Your're the one with an agenda. You want welfare. Personally I hope you get exactly what you want, but I do have one question for you.
After what you have seen with every single other government program introduced in the past 50 years. Why on earth would you think anything good could come from government doctors and the government deciding what health care you can have.
Personally, I don't think I want those people choosing who lives and who dies.

[The Zipper]

i have a job KC Brougham.....i'm self-employed and make a good living....however, I can't get health insurance from a pre-existing condition. I know guys like you who are working as security gurads making $ 9 per hour get better benefits than me. your family must be so proud of you. have you had a chance to pull your gun yet on some unsuspecting shoplifter at target?

[BlindWithPrideOfAmerica]

You tell 'em Nick.
Who lives and dies is for insurance companies to decide.

[The Zipper]

rather than just reponding to someone with vitriol----why don't you actually take a moment to check out the health care offered in countries like Canada? you might be surprised to find out that 85% of the people covered like the system and think its great. wingnuts like you have to use phrases like "socialized medicine" just to create fear. look into it bud....don't just give us some typical george bush/karl rove response. moron