Police: No indication situation would turn tragic before Bonney Lake murder-suicide

A murder-suicide in Bonney Lake Friday night brought to light just how difficult it can be to determine when a domestic dispute situation can turn fatal.

Pierce County Detective Ed Troyer told KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don that there was no indication that David Annis would return to murder his wife, Regina Annas, after police initially acted out a protection order.

“He was cooperative and he took his personal belongings and he left. He didn’t show any indication or signs of being angry or mad,” Troyer said.

A female friend was also shot in the incident, though she is expected to recover.

Where the story gets tricky is that while Regina Annas wanted a divorce, the couple didn’t have a history of assaults or violence.

“These restraining orders get filed every day and hundreds and hundreds of times they work … In this particular case there were no actual assaults in the past, there were no indications of anything being that violent, let alone a minor assault,” Troyer said. “When somebody leaves cooperatively and they look like they’re going to go do the right thing and (then) come back five hours later, there just really isn’t going to be a way to stop that. She didn’t even ever convey that she thought he was even capable of doing something like that. She basically just said that he frightened her and didn’t want to be around it anymore.”