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Estranged Husband Of Michigan Woman Denied Protective Order Killed Her Entire Family
Tirany Savage twice asked a court for an order of protection against her husband, Bo Savage, who was verbally abusing her and threatening worse. He bought a gun and killed her, her teenage son and her mother.
New details are coming to light in the murder-suicide that occurred after one of the victims was denied a protection order against the perpetrator.
Tirany Savage, 35, was one of four people found dead in a murder-suicide at her Houghton Lake, Michigan home on July 10. Roscommon County officials said that her husband, Bo Eugene Savage — also 35 — shot Tirany, her teenage son Dayton Cowdrey, 13, and Tirany’s mother, Kim Lynette Ebright, 58, to death before turning the gun on himself.
Tirany’s divorce lawyer, Nancy Gallagher, spoke to NBC News on Friday, saying her client was “a single mom who was a survivor of domestic violence” in a previous relationship, and had worked hard to put herself through nursing school.
“She had so much going for her, and she was just doing so well in so many ways,” said Gallagher. “I want it to be known — she wasn’t somebody making terrible decisions.”
On June 24 — just 17 days before her murder — Tirany filed for a personal protection order (PPO) against her husband, making disturbing claims about Bo’s mental health and his recent purchase of a firearm.
“He has mental issues (he stopped taking his meds) and recently purchased a firearm, and that is concerning to me,” Tirany wrote in the application, noting that her husband also refused to leave the family home. “He keeps saying he is going to blow his brains out, and I do not want my safety or my son’s safety in jeopardy.”
Tirany also alleged that Bo had taken a pet from her and stalked her, according to NBC News.
Three days later, Judge Troy B. Daniel denied the request, citing “insufficient evidence of a showing of immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage.”
Judge Daniel said she could file for another request if she filed for divorce.
Tirany’s filed for divorce on July 7, accusing her husband of infidelity and verbal abuse, according to NBC News.
“I filed for divorce today after dealing with my husband’s affair,” wrote Tirany in a statement accompanying the filing. “He became verbally violent and keeps throwing his fist like he is going to hit me and calling me a c-nt, whore, piece of sh-t, and told me I will need a PPO because I have no idea what I just started.”
“I asked him to be civil for a divorce and asked him to leave [the] house, and he refuses,” Tirany added. “I left and have been getting texts accusing me of being with other people, and he has now been texting my friends, threatening them because he thinks they told me to leave him.”
Bo shot and killed Tirany and her family just three days later.
Gallagher said her client’s husband had been growing “more manipulative” and “more controlling” as she tried to leave him.
Deputies with the Roscommon County Sheriff’s Office implied there had been issues in the Savage household in the past, according to NBC News.
“It was a fairly lengthy relationship, and we do have some prior calls,” said Undersheriff Ben Lowe. “I’m not disclosing at this time what those calls were or when they were.”
In an updated release by Lowe sent to Oxygen.com, he stated that Bo Savage had legally obtained the firearm used in the murder-suicide.
According to studies published by the Giffords Law Center, victims of domestic violence are five times more likely to be shot to death when the abuser has access to firearms.
More than half of intimate partner homicides are committed with firearms, accounting for more than 600 deaths per year (approximately one every 14 hours in the United States).
Bo Savage had a 2005 conviction of criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree (by force or coercion), as shown in the Michigan Sex Offender Registry. According to NBC News, he was initially charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct before pleading guilty to lesser charges.
Several of Tirany’s family members created a fundraiser on Facebook to honor the relatives by raising funds for the ongoing care of the family dogs.
“Words cannot describe the tremendous loss the world is feeling after the senseless loss of these beautiful souls on July 10, 2022,” the page states.
The fundraiser reached just over half its $20,000 goal by Tuesday morning.
