After She Was Cleared in Ex-Husband’s Death, Texas Woman Allegedly Killed Her 5th Husband

Sarah Hartsfield/Facebook; Joseph Hartsfield/Facebook

In the wake of Sarah Hartsfield, 48, being charged with murder after allegedly killing her husband, Joseph Hartsfield, 46, investigators have been prompted to look back at the death of her ex-husband five years prior. In 2018, Sarah Hartsfield told police she shot then-husband David Bragg in self-defense. Now investigators say they’re not so sure that's what actually happened.

NBC News reported that Chambers County, Texas Sheriff Brian Hawthorne told Houston affiliate KPRC that Hartsfield had been married five times, and each time those relationships ended under “grim circumstances.” According to friends, Joseph Hartsfield was afraid of his wife, and another ex-husband told NBC News he had reason to be.

Sarah Hartsfield shared her displeasure with her marriage with friends.

Private messages exchanged with a friend on Facebook gave insight into what Sarah Hartsfield said was happening behind closed doors. The friend shared messages with NBC News detailing the woman’s dissatisfaction with her husband. She said her marriage was a “nightmare.” On December 19, 2022, Sarah Hartsfield claimed her husband was irresponsible and that she was carrying the family financially.

“I’ve paid for everything to the point I have nothing left,” one message read. “He was just looking for a meal ticket and way back to a lifestyle he could never attain on his own.”

The unidentified friend told the news outlet that Sarah Hartsfield messaged her, “it’s now a matter of implementing/executing,” according to NBC News. The friend thought that meant she wanted to leave the marriage. She had no idea Sarah Hartsfield might kill her husband.

Weeks later, Joseph Hartsfield was dead from a mysterious illness.

He was hospitalized on January 7, 2023, with a strange illness, and doctors said he was “brain dead,” per a search warrant affidavit obtained by NBC News. Just 11 days later, he died, but the cause of death is still undetermined.

Joseph Hartsfield was extremely ill when he arrived at Houston Methodist Hospital in Baytown. His blood sugars were dangerously low. He had diabetes, and nurses tried to get his glucose levels back up but were unsuccessful. According to the affidavit, a nurse told investigators that she suspected foul play because of how incredibly ill he was.

In a December 19 Facebook post, weeks before her husband’s death, Sarah Hartsfield shared a cryptic message.

“In a bad situation you have to know when initiating an exit strategy is all you have left and hope it won’t take an eternity to recover,” the post read.

Sarah Hartsfield has a history of unsuccessful marriages.

Her first husband, Titus Knoernschild, told NBC News the couple married in 1995 after meeting in high school. The relationship was rocky, and Knoernschild said Sarah Hartsfield threatened him during their breakup. She allegedly told him, “Don’t be surprised if you don’t make it through this.”

Her second Husband, Michael Traxler, didn’t have much to say about her. He told NBC News that it had been 15 years since he had spoken to her and that it was in his “rearview mirror.”

In 2017, her third husband, Christopher Donohue, filed for divorce, according to court records obtained by NBC News. Four years later, Donohue requested an order of protection, and federal authorities asked police to monitor his home, records show. It is unknown how the two are related, the news outlet reported. Authorities granted the protection order and barred Sarah Hartsfield from contacting Donohue or his two children.

Everything seemed great with Bragg.

When Sarah Hartsfield married her fourth husband in 2017, life seemed good. The friend who provided NBC with the Facebook messages said Sarah Hartsfield messaged her about her new home in Minnesota and things like paint colors. Yet in just months, things seemed to go south.

The couple got into an altercation, and Sarah Hartsfield claimed that she shot her husband in self-defense after Bragg shot at her. Douglas County Sheriff Chard Larson said a forensic investigation and testimony from an unnamed witness supported her story, according to a 2019 letter obtained by NBC News.

The news of another husband’s death led prosecutors in Douglas County, Minnesota, to reopen Bragg’s case.

“Almost 5 years ago our family lost a son, a brother, an uncle, and a FATHER,” Braggs' family said in statement, per NBC News. “With very little information regarding his death, we were unable to ever really move forward. All we knew is that the man that was described by his killer was in fact not the David we all knew and loved. His death was very random, and the circumstances that surrounded his death seemed farfetched, and almost made up.”

Sarah Hartsfield continued to post about her husband after his death.

She has shared many public Facebook posts dedicated to her deceased husband. She professed her love for him and declared her innocence. In one post, she wrote, “Thank you, Tx law is on my side. When others play underhanded and dirty, let them keep showing who they really are!”

According to NBC News, she is on suicide watch while jailed in Chambers County on a $4.5 million bond, charged with first-degree murder.

Bragg’s family has found some semblance of peace in her arrest. “We are hopeful that this time around, we will be able to have that closure, and the knowledge that nobody else will be hurt by this woman,” their statement reads.