Total Divorce Blog

Accounts of domestic violence following a bitter divorce have been sadly and unfortunately making headlines recently. In the last couple of days, two women were killed in Michigan and California by a former and soon-to-be ex-husband who were angry about their divorces.

• Last Thursday night, a Michigan woman was shot to death by her ex-husband who then committed suicide. Patricia Anne Brimhall was returning to the Harper Woods home she shared with her fiancée around 11 p.m. when her former husband Jon L. Brimhall ambushed her as she entered the home. Police said in a Detroit Free Press story that Patricia Brimhall was shot two to three times by her ex-husband, who had driven from the Howell home the couple used to share. After neighbors heard the gunshots and called police, Patricia Brimhall was rushed to Detroit’s St. John Hospital, where she later died.

Around 4 a.m., police went to Patricia Brimhall’s old house where they found Jon dead. Family members say that Jon Brimhall was upset about the couple’s divorce, which was finalized in December. There was no reported incidents of domestic abuse between the couple involving police, according to the story.

• An Oakland woman was killed Sunday by her husband in front of more than 100 parishioners of a gospel church. 40-year-old Tanya McCall was shot to death by her husband, 42-year-old Matthew McCall, on Sunday morning en route to attending an
8 a.m. service at Acts Full Gospel Church. Witnesses told police that Matthew McCall accosted Tanya as she walked toward the church. The couple then started to argue before Matthew pulled out a gun and shot his wife several times in a fashion that witnesses described as “execution style.” McCall turned himself into police later on Sunday night and was arrested on suspicion of murder. Police said they found documentation at Matthew’s home indicating that he planned to confront Tanya and kill her at the church.

Tanya McCall’s father, Willis Hill, detailed in a San Francisco Chronicle story that the couple had gone through a bitter divorce in which Tanya offered Matthew three of their six jointly-owned homes, and he angrily refused. Hill added that Tanya was willing to split the properties but did not want to pay Matthew spousal support. Tanya, who worked as a real estate agent and administrator for the California State Automobile Association, had purchased and managed the six jointly-owned properties.

Hill said that the couple had been together since the early 1980s and married for more than 20 years when Tanya filed for divorce in November. He alleged that Matthew, who was convicted of manslaughter in 1985, was a very cruel person, and said that Tanya separated with him two times before but wouldn’t divorce because of her religious beliefs. After a third separation, Tanya didn’t come back. She was granted a temporary restraining order last Thursday. However, police said that the restraining order did not help Tanya because she could not call police before Matthew shot her.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at 2:45 pm and is filed under Alimony and Maintenance Law, Divorce Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.