Article content

Melissa Richmond had always dreamed of travelling the world but figured it was out of her financial reach.

So in July 2013 when her husband said he had figured out a way for a two-year, around-the-world trip, she was, in her own words, shocked.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Husband offers wife trip around world, then kills her: Richmond trial Back to video

“I was shocked he even suggested it … a dream, pretty much a fantasy. I didn’t think it could ever be done,” she texted her secret lover.

Less that two weeks later, Melissa, 28, was killed on July 25, 2013.

Her husband Howard Richmond, a military man on medical leave at the time, stabbed his wife to death with a knife and screwdriver after a midnight rendez-vous in the parking lot of the South Keys Shopping Centre, a 30-minute drive from their big house in Winchester.

Richmond has admitted that he killed his wife but his legal team – Joseph Addelman and Jason Gilbert – is asking the jury to find him not criminally responsible because he was in the throes of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Richmond, 52, was diagnosed with PTSD in 2011 after three tours of duty in Afghanistan.

The jury heard Melissa’s voice in texts read into the court record on Monday. The prosecution says she was killed after making plans to leave her husband.

Melissa’s lover, Jeff Thornton, told court that she told him she’d end up dead if her husband ever found out about their torrid affair.

The trial continues Tuesday.

gdimmock@ottawacitizen.com

www.twitter.com/crimegarden