Bay Village, OH: Children with relatives after Bay Village murder-suicide

Published: Thursday, September 02, 2010, 2:51 PM
Alison Meaney, Sun News

BAY VILLAGE The city continues to reel with empathy for two children of Mary “Molly” Rorthgery and her soon-to-be ex-husband Michael, who shot himself after smothering her in their Russell Drive home on Saturday afternoon.
Bay Village Detective Lieutenant Mark Spaetzel said the children are staying with their uncle — Michael’s brother — in Elyria. Spaetzel said they’re safe and sound, but that he has no idea what will happen to them.

“Next to the wife they’re the biggest victims,” Spaetzel commented.
According to Spaetzel, it’s hard to say whether their grief could have been avoided.
“Given the incident of divorce, about 50 percent . . . homicides don’t occur that often,” Spaetzel explained. “That potential is always there in volatile personal relationships, but its difficult to see which ones may go that way.”
Molly filed for divorce on July 23, but due to finances the couple continued living together despite a restraining order issued against Michael the day Molly filed papers.
“When divorces are filed that restraining order is issued as a matter of course,” Spaetzel said. “She did not have a protection order that keeps them apart.”
Spaetzel continued that the only calls to police from the Rothgery residence were from Michael calling to speak with an officer about his pending divorce and to report in police logs that Molly was threatening to have his teaching license revoked.
“There were no allegations of physical abuse,” Spaetzel noted. “I don’t think that anyone thought that this would end up in a murder-suicide.”