A former state trooper killed his estranged wife with a
shotgun inside a central Pennsylvania supermarket Thursday and then killed
himself, days after she filed for divorce and two months after he was accused
of beating her, police said.
Mark A. Miscavish, who retired from the state police in 2011
after 15 years, killed Traci Miscavish at around 10 a.m. at the County Market
in Philipsburg where she worked, authorities said. Police also spelled her
first name Tracie.
He was arrested Jan. 23 after Traci Miscavish, who had
recently left him, returned to the home to retrieve some belongings, Centre
County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller said.
Traci Miscavish believed her husband had been abusing
prescription drugs and when she went to take them away, he wrestled her to the
ground, pinned her arms behind her and attempted to bind her with duct tape,
said Parks Miller, whose office was prosecuting him.
He pulled out a gun , a police affidavit said he did not
point it at her , and threatened to kill her, but a passer-by saw him trying to
drag her back into the home and stopped to help, Parks Miller said. He was
charged with simple assault, terroristic threats and harassment and spent a
week in jail before being bailed out.
Parks Miller said Traci Miscavish lived in fear of her
51-year-old estranged husband and told prosecutors she believed he would harm
her further.
"She said, `The next time I see him is going to be at
the end of a gun,'" Parks Miller told The Associated Press. "We were
very concerned when he got out and we're just devastated now."
Mark Miscavish's defense attorney, David Charles Mason, was
not available for comment, his office said.
Traci Miscavish filed for divorce within the past week.
Her sister Gina March, speaking to reporters outside the
supermarket after the shooting, said the system had failed both her sister and
her brother-in-law.
"He wasn't in his right mind," March said. "I
don't believe he's at fault, I believe he needed help. ... And nobody was there
to help him, not the judge, not the cops, not our system."
State police planned an afternoon news conference to discuss
the case.
Christina Price, who said she works at a liquor store in the
same strip mall as the supermarket, told the Centre Daily Times that Traci
Miscavish was a cheerful woman and so friendly and happy that "you
couldn't imagine there was stuff going on at home."
Price told the newspaper she had no idea the woman had a
protection order against her husband.
"Would it have stopped this?" she asked.
"It's like, how do you get out alive? When you've got kids and grandkids
and friends and family, how do you split it and get away?"