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(WWJ) Bob Bashara, the Grosse Pointe Park businessman turned infamous convicted killer, is dead.
Officials say Bashara, who was serving a 2015 life without parole prison sentence for hiring a man to murder his wife, died Monday at an Ann Arbor-area hospital.
While Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Chris Gautz confirmed Bashara's death to WWJ Newsradio 950 on Tuesday, the cause of death is unknown at this time.
The 62-year-old, who was being held at the Woodland Center Correctional Facility in Whitmore Lake, had been in the hospital since July 26, Gautz said.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has been a concern in jails and prisons, Gautz said there are no active coronavirus cases at Woodland Center at this time.
Gautz did not release any further details.
Jane Bashara was found strangled to death in backseat of her Mercedes-Benz SUV, abandoned in an alley at Pinwood and Arnott in Detroit on January 25, 2012,
An autopsy showed the 56-year-old mother of two had missing fingernails and extensive bruising to her upper body.
Prosecutors argued that Bob Bashara wanted his wife out of the way so he could pursue a new life with other women, who referred to him as “Master Bob” as part of an alternative sexual lifestyle known as BDSM. Developmentally disabled handyman Joe Gentz admitted that — under orders from Bob Bashara — he strangled Jane Bashara in the couple's garage, then drove her body to Detroit.
During the trial, Bob Bashara was already in prison for trying to have Gentz killed in jail. Gentz is serving 17-to-28 years in prison after pleading guilty to second degree murder in the case.