Kansas City, Mo. ? Two sisters of Criste Reimer said Thursday that they had wanted to keep her away from her husband, who was charged this week with hurling her to her death.

Criste Reimer, who was found dead Tuesday night outside her Country Club Plaza apartment, lived with her mother outside the Kansas City area for several months until mid-July, when Stanley Reimer visited and said he was going to take her to dinner. He took her away and never came back, said her sisters, Vicki Jones and Terri Metrano.

“I was scared to death,” Jones said. “I did not want him around her.”

Criste Reimer had been “doing great” at their mother’s house, the sisters said, adding that they had become more concerned about her safety since last fall, when Stanley Reimer’s mood and attitude toward them seemed to change.

“He just got scary,” Jones said. “It was like we just didn’t know him anymore.”

Metrano said she tried to talk to her brother-in-law in October when Criste Reimer was hospitalized for one of the many health problems she had suffered since she was a child.

“He seemed pretty unstable,” Metrano said. “He said he was afraid of me.”

Stanley Reimer, 51, is charged with second-degree murder in his wife’s death.

He was not represented by a lawyer Thursday when he made his initial court appearance. He did not speak, and a judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. Bond was set at $250,000 cash. His next court appearance was scheduled for Sept. 10.

Reimer, who went to court last year to have himself declared guardian and conservator of his wife’s affairs because of her physical difficulties, told police that he threw her off their fourth-story balcony because he was unable to care for her because of “extreme financial difficulties,” according to court documents.

Stanley Reimer has worked at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art since 1996. Museum officials declined to say what he did, but his sisters-in-law said he was an accountant.

The couple attended Leawood United Methodist Church in Kansas, and Senior Pastor Rob Winger described them as “good, kind folks.”

“They were a couple of people who always sent birthday and anniversary cards to other church members,” Winger said.

Church member Pat Snowden said that they attended the church about 15 years and that it seemed he was trying to take good care of her.

Criste Reimer, 47, never complained about the serious maladies she had suffered since childhood and always was upbeat, her sisters said.

“She was the kindest person I ever met,” Jones said.

Criste Reimer had a big interest in scrapbooking and also collected cookbooks, recipes and teddy bears. Online, she had used the name “cudlypoo.”

She chronicled her physical problems in one online posting and lamented the fact that it prevented her from being an organ donor.

“I would do anything if I could donate any organ that anyone needed,” she wrote.

She also described how doctors had advised her parents to take her out of school and told them that she probably would have the mental level of a 6-year-old for the rest of her life after she was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis and hydrocephalus.

“Thank goodness they didn’t listen to the doctors,” she wrote.