Patel, who lives in the Steiner Ranch neighbourhood in Austin, drove to an apartment complex in Rutland Drive in north Austin last week, where she asked several people about hiring a person to ‘take care of’ her husband.

A witness called the police around on September 4 to report that a woman, identified as Patel, came to her and said her husband had beaten her and she needed that he be ‘taken care of’. Another witness told police that she asked Patel: “Wait, do you mean beat him up?”