The woman who was shot several times in the torso last week by her estranged husband outside of her Redmond apartment was identified as Melissa Batten, according to the King County Medical Examiner’s office.
Her husband, Joseph Batten, then killed himself with one shot to the head.
Melissa’s death was classified as a homicide, the first one in Redmond since 2004, and Joesph’s death was deemed a suicide, according to the Medical Examiner’s office.
Melissa, 36, obtained a protection order against Joseph, who was also 36, less than a week before she was murdered. Melissa lived with Joseph in Kent, but then moved in with a friend at the Archstone Redmond Campus Apartments after Joseph got a gun and exhibited violent, suicidal tendencies.
Melissa got the protection order in King County District court in Redmond on July 21. The order was served to Joseph on July 25 — the day before the murder-suicide — at a Kent address. The order said Joseph could not come within 100 yards of Melissa.
In her request for the protection order, Melissa wrote how Joseph called her more than 30 times on Jul 19 and 20. He told her that if she continued to hang up on him, “he would make my life hell — so bad I would have to move,” Melissa wrote. “I was afraid of what that meant and given past incidents, I did not feel I had free will not to talk to him.”
Just three days before Joseph bombarded her with phone calls, he broke into Melissa’s workplace at Microsoft while she was out of town. He was caught by security guards and banished from campus.
But the scariest incident happened on June 5 when they were still living together in Kent.
“He had unbeknownst to me, obtained a gun,” she wrote in her request.
In addition, he had found out about an affair she had. As Melissa was cooking dinner, Joseph confronted Melissa about the affair. The heated discussion continued as the two went downstairs. Melissa got up to put on a sweater and that’s when Joseph pulled the gun from the back waistband of his pants and pointed it at Melissa and said “sit down, you aren’t going anywhere,” according to court documents. They sat back down and Joseph showed Melissa the gun was loaded and the safety was off. He then put the gun to his head and said he was going to kill himself, the courts papers said.
Eventually, Joseph put the gun down, but kept it within reach. After about an hour of talking, Joseph calmed down and put the gun away, according to court documents.
Soon after that incident, Melissa moved to Redmond with a friend, but Joseph found out where she was living — in the 4300 block of 156th Avenue Northeast. Last Tuesday, Melissa left the apartment and was on her way to work at Microsoft — about two blocks from the apartment complex — when Joseph approached her in the parking lot. Joseph shot Melissa several times in the torso with a 9-mm handgun before shooting himself. A second gun, a .357 handgun, was found in Joesph’s waistline, according to Redmond police.
There were several witnesses to the murder-suicide, but no else was shot, according to Jim Bove, Redmond Police Department public information officer. However a stray bullet did hit a white sports utility vehicle in the parking lot.
