BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – Police in Battle Creek have arrested a man they say beat his mother-in-law to death with a baseball bat.
The attack happened Tuesday morning at the victim's daughter's house on Cliff Street.
Officers say Howard McDonald hit Joan Roush in the head with a bat. She died while being airlifted to the hospital.
McDonald is now behind bars, facing several charges including open murder.
Newschannel 3 has been digging into McDonald's past and found out his wife has a personal protection order against him. In that order, his wife says she was frightened for her life and the lives of her children.
“He was strange,” said neighbor Rachel Campbell. “He was different, he never looked at you when he talked to you.”
Campbell says McDonald was always asking to borrow money and she says she often heard him arguing with his wife, Sheila.
“They fought a lot,” said Campbell, “and if you ever walked down there, you could hear them yelling and stuff.”
But Campbell says she never guessed that McDonald might pull his wife's mother into things.
“I always thought he would do something like that, so that doesn't surprise me,” said Campbell, “the person he did it to really surprised me, I really thought it would be his wife.”
The PPO states that Sheila had started the process of divorce and that McDonald had threatened her on several occasions. She told the court he had a crack cocaine habit, was bi-polar and said things to her like “I'll burn the house down with you in it,” and “you had better watch it, I'll take you out *****. No one survives this divorce except Jon, (the couple's child).”
“It's kind of terrifying when you see the police coming and going and coming and going before this, at least a week and a half now,” said Campbell.
Police say in order to help their daughter through her ordeal, Joan and Robert Roush had come to check on and secure the house. Detectives say that's when McDonald surprised them with a bat.
“The husband came inside and found her laying on the ground,” said Sgt. Austin Simons, Battle Creek Police Department.
“She's a smaller woman, she was little and against him I don't think she could have fought back,” said Campbell. “She was just the nicest woman, I don't know why anyone would do such a thing to her.”
McDonald is currently being held at the Calhoun County Jail on charges of open murder and assault with intent to murder.
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