TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — Amber Hilberling wrote a letter one day before she died in prison.
The letter was addressed to Tulsa's Channel 8 executive producer Amy Sullivan. It was in response to the station's request to talk with Hilberling about her story and life behind bars.
The letter, dated Oct. 23, 2016, arrived at the station Thursday. What it said casts some doubt on the medical examiner's claim her death was a suicide.
"I am willing to do an interview, despite my honest reservations," Hilberling wrote in the letter.
Hilberling makes it clear she's been burned before by journalists promising to listen.
"Please understand the misfortune I've suffered from media interviews," wrote Hilberling. "I had agreed to do on the popular promise of helping me."
But she explained why she was willing to set aside her concerns to speak with us.
"Because I can't let go of the hope that using my own voice in conversations about my own life will be the one and only chance I have to change the circumstances of my own reality," wrote Hilberling.
In 2013, a jury found Hilberling intentionally pushed her husband, Joshua Hilberling, to his death from a 25th-floor apartment in Tulsa. She denied it until the end.
Although her death was ruled suicide by what appeared to be hanging, she expressed no despair in the letter she mailed to us. Her words seemed focused and well written.
"Obviously, she had a story she wanted to share," said Sullivan.
Hilberling's parents say the letter is even more proof Amber would never have taken her own life, something they've doubted since they were notified.