Three years have passed since the death of Denise Broadie after a long battle of health complications. Though, following her passing, her husband was charged in connection to her death which authorities now consider to be a murder. The reason behind the charges stems from a long-held secret that could have saved Denise’s life.
Police charged Cleveland Broadie with three counts of murder in connection to the April 2022 death. Prior to Denise’s death, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017. She had gone into remission after but by 2019, the illness returned, per Atlanta News First. Denise then spent the next few years undergoing rigorous chemotherapy treatments and seeing the inside of a hospital more than her own home, prosecutors said.
Luckily, the cancer eventually cleared. However, the report says she was still sick. After being moved to another hospital, prosecutors say doctors discovered she was suffering from another terminal illness: HIV/AIDS. Two days after being diagnosed, Denise died at 65 years old, per FOX 5 News.
The year following her death, police discovered the source of where her diagnosis came from was none other than her husband, Cleveland Broadie. Her family said the two married back in 2014 after meeting him at a Christmas party two years prior, the report says. Family members tell reporters she was deeply in love with him. However, prosecutors accused Broadie of taking advantage of that relationship and recklessly giving his wife HIV.
He was arrested in July 2023 for reckless conduct and received two additional charges of the same count after other women came forward accusing him of having unprotected sex with them without disclosing his illness. He entered a not guilty plea to those charges.
On the backend, the report says Denise’s relatives worked with private investigators to do some extra digging to prove he’d known about his diagnosis prior to meeting Denise. This prompted prosecutors to seek even harsher charges, claiming new evidence proved he knew since 2006 about being HIV-positive but did not disclose it to Denise. On April 23, a Rockdale County grand jury slammed Broadie with two additional counts of malice murder and felony murder. Broadie’s bond was also denied.
“There was malice in what he did. At any time, he could have told her and given her the right to make the decision to stay with him. Not that she would have,” said Denise’s daughter, Karen Young, via FOX.