On Tuesday, July 29th, lawyer and Microsoft game developer Melissa Batten, 36, was fatally shot by her husband, Joseph Batten in what was a murder-suicide in a parking lot in Redmond, Washington.

There were reports of the couple's marriage falling apart, with Melissa Batten filing for a protection order against her estranged husband after a series of events that had culminated in the latter acquiring and brandishing a gun to the late Mrs. Batten. The order was granted one week prior to the murder.

Melissa Batten, attended Harvard to pursue law, but found her way into game development, working at Microsoft Game Studios. She has worked at Microsoft since 2002 and is listed in the credits of Halo 3 and Gears of War as a Software Development Engineer in Test. Before her death, she was working on projects for Rare, most recently discussing Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts at E3. This video can be found here.

Let us offer our condolences to Melissa Batten and her family.

Very sad news from Redmond, Wash. Melissa Batten, 36, a software development engineer in Microsoft's Xbox division, was murdered by her estranged husband, who then shot himself to death, earlier this week.

Batten, a Harvard-educated lawyer, was a Software Development Engineer in Test for Microsoft, supporting Rare on its 360 titles work. She had worked for Microsoft since 2002, earning credits in Halo 3 and Gears of War as an SDET. Earlier, as a lawyer, she had been a public defender for the Mecklenburg County (Charlotte, N.C.) Public Defender's Office.

Her husband, Joseph Batten, was also 36. He had also worked for Microsoft but most recently worked for Wizards of the Coast, publisher of hobby games such as Magic: the Gathering. Melissa had obtained a restraining order against her husband on July 21. Another news story describes Joseph Batten as obsessive and verbally abusive, and when she learned he had obtained a handgun, she sought the protection order.

Akira_EX via kotaku.com »