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Lawyer Asks D.A. To Drop Charges Against Wife Of Alleged 'Duck Sauce Killer' After Suicide
Attorney Mark Bederow said his client, Dorothy Hirsch — the wife of alleged "Duck Sauce Killer" Glenn Hirsch, who died via suicide — was charged in a "heavy-handed" attempt by prosecutors to help convict her accused husband of murder.
A New York woman still faces criminal charges after her husband, accused of being the “Duck Sauce Killer,” took his own life.
Dorothy Hirsch, 62, was arrested following a June raid of her Queens, New York home and charged with eight counts of criminal possession of a weapon. The search came two days after her estranged husband, Glenn Hirsch, 51, was charged for the shooting death of Chinese food deliveryman Zhiwen Yan.
Yan’s April 30 murder came at the end of a months-long obsession Glenn Hirsch allegedly had with the Great Wall restaurant on Queens Boulevard. He allegedly took issue with how many duck sauce packets he received with a food delivery back in November before allegedly harassing and threatening Great Wall employees, including Yan, for the next several months.
Prosecutors said Glenn Hirsch stalked Yan on his delivery route before shooting him once in the chest as he waited at a red light on his scooter.
Glenn Hirsch, dubbed the “Duck Sauce Killer” by media outlets, reportedly shot himself on Friday, just hours before he was due to appear in court to potentially face more charges. That morning, he e-mailed a suicide note to several people tied to the case, including prosecutors and lawyers.
In the letters, Glenn Hirsch claimed that his wife, Dorothy— who had lived at a residence separate from her husband since 2019 — had nothing to do with the firearms found at her home.
“The more we learn about this case, the more apparent it becomes that the prosecution against Dorothy was a heavy-handed effort designed to squeeze her into cooperating against Glenn,” Dorothy’s attorney, Mark Bederow, told Oxygen.com.
The attorney also claimed it was “obvious” that the district attorney’s office had planned to indict Glenn Hirsch for the firearms charges already filed against Dorothy.
Bederow penned a letter to Queens County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Salmon on Tuesday, asking prosecutors to “re-evaluate the merits of a prosecution against Dorothy.”
He sent a copy of the letter to Oxygen.com, which included a portion of Glenn’s “dying declaration.”
“I want to take full responsibility for the eight guns recovered from a closet in [Dorothy’s] apartment,” Glenn Hirsch wrote. “I acquired these firearms many years ago, and they remained undisturbed in an outside storage facility shared with previous roommates. However, a couple of years ago, when my wife purchased her new cooperative apartment, I decided to close the storage unit.”
Glenn Hirsch claimed he then moved the guns to Dorothy Hirsch’s apartment and placed them in a hallway storage closet with other miscellaneous items.
“She had absolutely no part in obtaining the firearms, nor did she have any knowledge they were inside of her residence,” Glenn Hirsch continued.
Bederow claimed Glenn Hirsch had “maintained direct access” to his wife's home following their separation.
“There is no evidence whatsoever that Dorothy knowingly possessed the firearms or had the intent to use them unlawfully,” Bederow told Oxygen.com.
Bederow also included photos of the unkempt closet and the recovered firearms in his letter to the district attorney’s office.
“The firearms — at least one of which contained Glenn’s DNA — were recovered from a closet containing only his possessions,” Bederow wrote in his letter. “Wrapped in tin foil and plastic, the firearms were stored in garbage bags and boxes consistent with his cluttered method of storage and inconsistent with Dorothy’s neat manner.”
Glenn Hirsch’s alleged untidiness aligned with what law enforcement sources told the New York Post following his arrest, when they referred to him as a “hoarder.” Witnesses stated “his whole fridge” was filled with duck sauce and other condiments.
“It was weird,” one source told the outlet.
Bederow also included lab reports in his requests to the district attorney’s office, showing Glenn Hirsch’s DNA was recovered from at least one of the guns found in Dorothy Hirsch’s home.
Bederow emphasized the murder weapon was never recovered.
“Dorothy has been through enough,” Bederow told Oxygen.com. “She has already been dealing with the stress of a misguided prosecution and now has to deal with the suicide of her husband as well. The Queens D.A. should immediately dismiss the case against Dorothy.”
Oxygen.com reached out to the District Attorney’s Office about the status of Dorothy Hirsch’s case, which confirmed she was due to appear in court on Aug. 19. No other information was immediately available.
