On August 23, 2008, 46-year-old Linda Diane Marley was found dead in the yard of her Old Lankford Road residence in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, having sustained a gunshot wound to the chest. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Her estranged husband, Terry Crit Marley, 48 at the time, was found beside her with a severe, apparently self-inflicted cut to his arm and was airlifted to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center before being transferred to Broughton Hospital, a state psychiatric facility in Morganton.

Linda had previously reported multiple incidents of domestic abuse by Terry. In a complaint filed May 31, 2008, she alleged threats to her life and past physical assaults including beating, choking, and threats with weapons. A temporary protection order requiring Terry to stay 250 feet away was granted but the case was dismissed June 9, 2008, after neither party appeared in court. A warrant for Terry Marley’s arrest was issued September 2, 2008, and served on September 10, 2009, after a delay while he remained hospitalized. He was charged with Linda’s murder and remained in custody until his death on March 28, 2010, at Grace Hospital in Morganton.

Did anyone in the community know of earlier efforts to enforce the protection order or have information about the months before the arrest was served?