State Trooper, Wife Killed in Murder-Suicide at PA Supermarket
A former Pennsylvania state trooper killed his wife inside a supermarket months after he was arrested for beating her and just days after his wife had filed for divorce.
Mark Miscavish, who retired from the Pennsylvania state police in 2011, killed his estranged wife Thursday morning with a shotgun while she was working at the County Market, then turned the gun on himself, according to the Centre Daily Times.
His wife, Traci Miscavish, thought her husband was abusing prescription drugs. One confrontation led to her being bound with duct tape after he wrestled her to the ground, Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks-Miller told the Associated Press.
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Other reports detail another argument that led to Mark pulling a gun on his wife, then dragging her back into their house by the hair.
Neighbors who saw the incident called police and Miscavish was charged with simple assault, terroristic threats, and harassment. He spent a week in jail before being bailed out and his wife obtained a protection-from-abuse order after the incident, Parks-Miller said.
Parks-Miller added that Tracie was in constant fear of her husband and had told prosecutors numerous times that she thought he was going to harm her further.
"She said, 'The next time I see him is going to be at the end of a gun,'" Parks-Miller told AP. "We were very concerned when he got out and we're just devastated now."
Her sister Gina March, who talked to reporters outside the supermarket after the shooting, blamed the system for having 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."
