Amber Hilberling Found Dead While Serving Time For Husband's Murder

An Oklahoma woman who was convicted of pushing her husband to his death from a 25-story window in 2011 has been found dead in prison.

Amber Hilberling, 25, was found in her McLoud cell Monday evening. She was a little more than three years into a 25-year sentence for second-degree murder, jailhouse records show.

A spokesman for Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections confirmed her death to The Huffington Post but said they are awaiting the medical examiner’s review before releasing the cause and manner of death.

When asked about local reports that Hilberling had died by suicide, Public Information Officer Alex Gerszewski said, “We are trying to quell those rumors right now.”

Hilberling had publicly maintained that the death of her husband, Josh, 23, was an accident following a physical argument in their Tulsa apartment. Her husband’s family had said that he had planned on leaving her because of the abuse they said she inflicted.

Back in February, Hilberling spoke out about that tragic day on the “Dr. Phil Show,” saying she pushed her husband, who was an Air Force veteran, in self-defense. She was 19 and seven months pregnant at the time.

“He reached out and grabbed me. And I was pregnant. And he didn’t care,” Hilberling said. “I pushed him off me. The window wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Her longtime supporters had set up a Change.org petition that called her husband’s death a “tragic accident” and asked President Barack Obama to pardon her. By Tuesday morning, it had collected 1,232 signatures.

During her trial, Hilberling rejected a plea deal that would have given her a five-year prison sentence. Jailhouse records show that she was up for parole in 2033, just three years before her sentence would finish.

Her family was raising her son during her incarceration.