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Bargy: Husband's Suffocation Was Accidental

MOUNT PLEASANT, Tenn. - A Maury County woman accused of tying up her husband and leaving him for 20 hours before he died appeared in court Wednesday.

Rebecca Bargy appeared at a bond hearing. Prosecutors charged her with reckless homicide, but they said that charge could be upgraded to murder depending on what they find in the investigation.

Her husband died over the weekend. Police said she bound and gagged him as part of a sexual bondage ritual.

Police found 29-year-old James Bargy in the couple's Maury County home Saturday.  His legs and arms were bound with rope. He also had a rubber ball stuffed in his mouth. 

Police said photos taken from the couple's home reveal both the pair liked to be tied up as part of a sexual act. This was part of their sex life for six years.

Her sister Frances Rudolph knew about the couple's sexual rituals.

"He asked me to tie him. He... He asked me to tie him up for my sister," she said.

Rudolph also discovered that her brother-in-law liked to wear women's underwear during the bondage ritual, which was the way his mother-in-law, Mona Phillips found him Saturday afternoon.

Bargy said what happened over the weekend was an accident.

"It was an accident," she said, walking in shackles to a squad car.

But prosecutors said his death was no accident.  Police said while he was tied up, Rebecca Bargy was staying at a hotel with her boyfriend she met online and flew across the country.

The judge handed out a $100,000 bond because he thought she was flight risk.

She is scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing next week.