The justice system has once again failed a woman seeking protection. A Michigan woman was killed by her estranged husband after a judge denied her request for a protection order.
Authorities say Tirany Savage called 911 dispatchers twice, just days after she requested the order, stating her husband was harassing her, authorities said.
The first call was made on June 26 while she was away from home. She told dispatchers that her husband, Bo Eugene Savage, was verbally threatening her, according to the Roscommon County Central Dispatch. During that call, she told the dispatcher she had filed a request for a protection order two days prior.
She called 911 the following day alleging her husband was home and “slamming stuff around,” according to the county’s central dispatch.
Nearly two weeks later, July 10, deputies in Roscommon Township were dispatched to a home around 3:30 a.m. and found the bodies of Tirany Savage, 35; her son, Dayton Cowdrey, 13; and her mother, Kim Lynette Ebright, 58, dead. Bo Savage, 35, was also found dead, authorities say he died by self-inflicted gunshot.
Roscommon County Undersheriff Ben Lowe said a deputy wasn’t able to meet with Tirany on June 26 because she was not home, but the deputy did speak with her over the phone.
A deputy was sent out to the Houghton Lake home the next day after Tirany called and separated the estranged couple, Lowe confirmed. The deputy also said there was no physical assault on either call Tirany Savage made to 911.
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.”
However, those calls were not Tirany Savage’s first call of reporting her husband to the police, NBC News.
The sheriff’s office went to the home on Oct. 11, 2018, after a call about a suicide attempt.
Tirany Savage told responding officers that her husband had been very upset, yelling and breaking things before he attempted to take his life, a sheriff’s office report stated.
Deputies found Bo Savage on the floor and 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 was then transported for an evaluation, the report said.
Tirany Savage filed for a protection order on June 24 in Michigan’s 34th Circuit Court. She told the court that her husband had bought a gun, repeatedly threatened suicide, and refused to leave the family’s home.
In her request for the protection order, she wrote about his threats and recent behavior, saying: “He has mental health issues (he quit taking his meds) & recently purchased a firearm & that is concerning to me. He keeps saying he will blow his brains out & I do not want my safety or my son’s safety in jeopardy.”
Her request was denied because by the judge, who said she could ask for a restraining order in divorce court.
