Somber news to report this Sunday–a Xbox Developer within Microsoft Game Studios, Melissa Batten, 36, died earlier this week in a murder-suicide.

Her husband, Joseph Batten, 36, shot and killed Mrs. Batten at a Redmond apartment complex on Tuesday, and then turned the gun on himself.

Just days before, Mrs. Batten had filed a protection order against her husband.

The Seattle Times reports:

In her request for a protection order, Melissa Batten described how her husband had called her more than 30 times on July 19 and 20 and warned her never to hang up on him. She also described a chain of circumstances that led to the phone calls, including how her husband broke into her workplace at Microsoft on July 16 and was caught by security guards.

“The biggest incident which clouds all his subsequent behavior occurred on June 5,” she wrote in the request. “He had, unbeknownst to me, obtained a gun.”

Mrs. Batten was credited on both Halo 3 and Gears of War as a Software Development Engineer in Test. (SDET).

Thanks [Seattle Times] and [Kotaku]