St. Charles Woman Who Beat Husband With Bat Found Dead

ST. CHARLES, IL — The decomposing body of a 60-year-old St. Charles woman who beat her husband with a baseball bat in 2017 was found in a car near Rockford Tuesday, authorities said. Donna Black was found dead in the vehicle, which was parked near the intersection of Sunset Terrace and Commonwealth Drive in Loves Park, Winnebago County Coroner Bill Hintz told the Daily Herald.

It's not clear how long her body had been in the vehicle but it had been decomposing for "some time," Hintz said. The coroner's office has not determined an official cause of death. Authorities should have more answers in two to three weeks, Hintz told the newspaper.

Black was convicted last month of aggravated battery for the 2017 beating of her husband, according to online court records. She pleaded guilty in June of aggravated battery and other charges of attempted murder and armed violence were dropped. She was sentenced to 180 days in jail but had 690 days of jail credit. She was also sentenced to 48 months of probation, according to online court records.

She was charged in November 2017 after she hit her husband, who was 57 years old at the time, with a bat and then allegedly tried to choke him with the bat, authorities said. The couple's daughter reportedly found Black on top of her husband at about 4:30 a.m. on Oct. 27, 2017, at their home in the 400 block of Valley View Drive and called authorities.

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