The Michigan woman killed this month by her estranged husband after a judge denied her request for a protection order had twice called 911 dispatchers in the days after she requested the order, saying her husband was harassing her, authorities said.
Tirany Savage called dispatchers on June 26 while she was away from home and said her husband, Bo Eugene Savage, was verbally threatening her, according to the Roscommon County Central Dispatch, which manages the county’s 911 and police dispatch calls. During the same call, she told a dispatcher she had filed a request for a protection order only two days earlier.
She called 911 the following day alleging her husband was home and “slamming stuff around,” according to the county’s central dispatch.
About two weeks later, 35-year-old Tirany Savage, her son and her mother were found dead along with Bo Savage, who authorities say died by self-inflicted gunshot.
The Roscommon County Sheriff’s Office, central dispatch said, was notified of both June calls.
Roscommon County Undersheriff Ben Lowe said Thursday a deputy wasn’t able to meet with Tirany Savage on June 26 because she was not home, but spoke to her by phone. A deputy went to the Houghton Lake home the next day and separated the estranged couple, Lowe said. He noted that there was not a complaint of a physical assault on either call Tirany Savage made to authorities in June.
Lowe said of the sheriff’s office’s response on June 27: “The deputy let him [Bo Savage] get some items out of the house and separated them for the day so that there wouldn’t be any problems.” He said they were waiting to see whether a protection order would be issued “because there had been no assault.”
This wasn’t the first time before her death that Tirany Savage had reported her husband to the police.
The sheriff’s office told NBC News that on Oct. 11, 2018, deputies responded to the couple’s home on a call for a suicide attempt.
Once there, deputies spoke to Tirany Savage, who said her husband had been very upset, yelling and breaking things before he attempted to take his life, according to a sheriff’s office report of the incident.
Deputies found Bo Savage on the floor. When he woke up, the report said, he appeared intoxicated and told deputies that he had “thoughts of harming himself all the time.”
He told deputies he wanted to be treated at a hospital, and he was transported for an evaluation, the report said.
Judge denies protection order before killings
Tirany Savage filed for a protection order June 24 in Michigan’s 34th Circuit Court, claiming her husband had bought a gun, repeatedly threatened suicide and refused to leave the family’s home in Houghton Lake.
In her request for the protection order, Tirany Savage wrote about her husband’s threats and recent behavior, stating: “He has mental health issues (he quit taking his meds) & recently purchased a firearm & that is concerning to me. He keeps saying he is going to blow his brains out & I do not want my safety or my sons safety in jeopardy.”
Her request was denied three days later, nearly two weeks before the family was killed.
In his denial, Judge Troy Daniel wrote that Tirany Savage could request a restraining order in divorce court, the document said. She filed for divorce on July 7.
On July 10, deputies in Roscommon Township, roughly 115 miles north of Lansing, were dispatched to a home around 3:30 am and found the bodies of Tirany Savage; Bo Savage, 35; her son, Dayton Cowdrey, 13; and her mother, Kim Lynette Ebright, 58, the county sheriff’s office said in a news release.
The sheriff’s office announced Friday that Bo Savage had legally obtained a gun found at the scene. Autopsy reports state Tirany Savage, her son and her mother de ella died from gunshot wounds in a homicide. Bo Savage killed himself by gunshot, the sheriff’s office said.
Daniel, the judge, and Nancy Gallagher, Tirany Savage’s divorce attorney, did not immediately return requests for comment Thursday.
‘She had so much going for her’
Gallagher told NBC News last week that Bo Savage’s behavior appeared to grow increasingly dangerous during the time Tirany Savage was trying to leave him.
Bo Savage got “more manipulative, more controlling,” Gallagher said.
Gallagher said she was impressed with Tirany Savage because she was a domestic violence survivor who had also previously been involved in an abusive relationship. Despite that, she had managed to “put herself through nursing school,” Gallagher said.
“She had so much going for her and she was just doing so well in so many ways,” she said. “I want it to be known — she she was n’t somebody making terrible decisions.”
Tim Stello and Eric Ortiz contributed.
www.nbcnews.com
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism