I'd venture a guess that most wives don't know every single thing their husband has in or around the home. The only way to find, say, a piece of clothing hidden in a shoe box (just an example) would be for the wife to searching through every box, container, drawer, etc. her husband owned. Not likely for most people that don't suspect their husband of anything at that point, and even less likely if the wife is suffering from a very serious illness such as cancer, with treatments that make her ill or weak. She probably wouldn't be expending energy (if she even could) on rifling through everything her husband has. I mean, I have never gone digging through my husband's closet, drawers, etc. In addition, there is always the possibility of a husband having a workshop, boxes of tools, etc. that I would have no reason or desire to ever look through.
Likewise, if I wanted to hide something from my husband, he'd never find it. Unless he wanted to go through mounds of scrapbooking supplies, closets full of seasonal clothing (including pockets on LOTS of clothing items, etc.)
It's REALLY not that hard to hide something in your home, if nobody is actively looking for it.