Joseph and Melissa Batten
Location | Redmond, Washington |
---|---|
Date | July 29, 2008 (Pacific Time Zone) |
Attack type | Murder |
Deaths | 2 (including the perpetrator) |
Perpetrator | Joseph Batten |
Joseph Eugene Batten (January 23, 1972 – July 29, 2008),[1][2] a video game programmer, killed his estranged wife Melissa Brooks Batten, also a software development engineer, in Redmond, Washington. She had taken out an order of protection against her husband on July 21, 8 days before he murdered her.
Biography
Early lives and education
Joseph Batten was born January 23, 1972 in Parkersburg, West Virginia.[2] Joseph got his mathematics degree from Marshall University.[3] His wife was Melissa Brooks Batten.[2] Melissa was a Harvard Law graduate.[3]
Careers
Melissa worked as a public defender in North Carolina from 2000-2002, handling domestic cases.[3] At the time, she worked for the Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Public Defender's Office.[4] Melissa moved to Washington state in 2002, and soon after got a job at Microsoft Game Studios, where Joseph was already working as a video game programmer.[3] Melissa earned credits on Halo 3 and Gears of War as a Software Development Engineer in Test, and was working in support of Xbox 360 developer Rare Ltd.[4][5] Joseph later worked at Wizards of the Coast as a Senior Project Manager.[2][3] Batten was also the head of the Gleemax project; on July 28, 2008, Wizards announced that they were shutting down Gleemax to concentrate on Dungeons & Dragons Insider.[6]
The Battens lived together in Kent, Washington.[7]
Murder-suicide
On June 5, 2008, after finding out about an affair Melissa had, Joseph confronted her and at one point he pointed a gun at her, and then at his own head.[7][8] Melissa moved into a friend's apartment in Redmond, Washington, soon after, but he found out where she was living.[7] A mutual friend persuaded him to sell his .22-caliber handgun back to the dealer, but he later bought two more guns, a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver and a 9-millimeter Taurus semiautomatic.[9] Joseph broke into her workplace at Microsoft on July 16 while she was out of town, and was banished from the campus after he was caught by security guards.[7] Melissa told police that he called her more than 20 times on July 19 and 20.[7] Melissa got a protection order against Joseph on July 21, which said he could not come within 100 yards of her, and was served to him on July 25.[7] She was in the process of filing for divorce.[10]
Shortly after 9 AM on July 29, 2008, Melissa left the apartment to go to work.[11][12] Joseph approached her in the parking lot and shot her several times in the torso with a 9-mm handgun, and then shot himself in the head.[11] Investigators found fuzzy handcuffs, hardcore pornography, an 8-inch cutting knife and $6,000 in cash in the trunk of Joseph's Mercedes sedan.[3] Microsoft provided grief counseling to Melissa's surviving relatives, and helped organize memorials for family and colleagues.[12] Washington state legislator Roger Goodman cited the Batten case in the passage of a 2014 state gun control law that involved domestic violence.[13]
See also
References
- ↑ "United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/JTJF-RMC : accessed 20 March 2015), JOSEPH E BATTEN, 29 Jul 2008; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Joseph E. Batten". The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. August 16, 2008. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 "Alarming evidence adds to murder-suicide mystery". Redmond Reporter. August 7, 2008. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Good, Owen (August 3, 2008). "Xbox Developer Dead in Murder-Suicide". Kotaku. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
- ↑ Chalk, Andy (August 5, 2008). "Xbox Developer Killed In Murder-Suicide". The Escapist. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
- ↑ Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. p. 301. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 "Murdered woman had protection order against suicidal husband". Redmond Reporter. August 1, 2008. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
- ↑ Whitely, Peyton (August 1, 2008). "Slain woman had protection order". The Seattle Times. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
- ↑ Luo, Michael (March 17, 2013). "In Some States, Gun Rights Trump Orders of Protection". New York Times. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
- ↑ "Redmond murder-suicide couple identified". KOMO News. July 31, 2008. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Murder-suicide: Woman, man shot dead in Redmond parking lot near Microsoft". Redmond Reporter. July 29, 2008. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Morris, Betsy (November 24, 2008). "You have victims working for you. You have batterers working for you too.", Fortune 158 (10); entire article reposted at
- ↑ "Washington State Legislature House of Representatives passes bill to save the lives of domestic violence victims". Redmond Reporter. February 12, 2014.