Man charged with killing ex-wife

4years ago

Washington news.

Police arrested a Washington man and charged him with murdering his ex-wife, who was shot in the eye while trying to pick up their children from home.

On Saturday, authorities answered a 911 call from a witness around 5 p.m., who claimed to have seen a woman who slumped in her car with her mouth bleeding.

As authorities from the Spokane Police Department arrived, they found Mary Schaffer's body. Court documents mentioned that the woman suffered “trauma to the left eye, consistent with a bullet entry into the head."

According to the officer who was on the scene, the woman wasn't robbed and her purse was over her shoulder. Investigators concluded that she was trying to get out of her car, parked across the street from the home of Nathan Beale, her ex-husband. A 9mm shell was found on the ground near the car.

The ex-husband threatened to kill Mary many times before, during the past 3-5 years. The documents said that Mary's brother claimed to the police that Beale "has not concealed his hatred of Mary.”

The brother added that Beale thought that the victim "went crazy" because of her brain tumor, and "needed to be shot". The man said he planned to "take care of that". The victim's brother said that Beale had claimed he was going to save up $3,000 to hire someone to kill Schaffer.

Investigators said that Beale told them he went to get coffee around noon after his ex-wife didn't show up to take bach the children. Witnesses said they heard a gunshot about 2:30 p.m. and saw a man matching Beale's description fleeing the scene.

Beale has pleaded not guilty and is being held on $1 million bond.