Inset: Melissa Ragen (Iosco County Jail). Background: The house where Ragen allegedly shot and killed her husband in AuSable Township, Mich. (Google Maps).
A Michigan woman is behind bars for killing her husband earlier this week, according to law enforcement in the Wolverine State.
Melissa Christine Ragen, who is 32, faces charges of open murder and felony firearm, as announced in a press release by the Iosco County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on Tuesday.
The incident occurred at the couple’s home in AuSable Township, a small charter township located off the coast of Lake Huron.
Just four minutes before 11 p.m. on Monday night, the loud report of gunfire rang out, according to law enforcement.
The Oscoda Township Police Department responded to the location and discovered James Thomas Ragen IV, aged 31, with a single gunshot wound, as reported by officials.
“The defendant claimed she was involved in a dispute with her husband, during which she grabbed a .357 caliber revolver and shot him in the chest,” stated the prosecutor’s office.
Officers, accompanied by Iosco County EMS personnel, reached the home on Second Street and attempted various life-saving techniques shortly after the incident. Despite these efforts, her husband was pronounced dead by 11:13 p.m., according to authorities.
On Monday, the defendant was arraigned in the 81st District Court for Iosco County, where she pleaded not guilty to the charges against her.
Court records in her criminal case have not yet been publicly docketed.
Back in December 2019, under her maiden name, the defendant initiated a paternity lawsuit against the victim, as referenced in the 23rd Circuit Court records from Iosco County. By June 2020, this case led to a legal order establishing the victim as the biological father of a child.
A review of the defendant’s apparent Facebook profile suggests the couple had multiple children together in the following years.
No one else was harmed in the shooting, law enforcement said.
Melissa Ragen is scheduled to next appear in court for a probable cause conference slated on Oct. 14. Then, a preliminary examination in her case is scheduled to occur on Oct. 28.
