Bizarre Murder-Suicide Takes Developer’s Life
- Scribbled on August 4th, 2008 by Jonathon Howard
- Filed in Industry News
Melissa Batten, 36 of Redmond California, a developer for Microsoft’s Xbox division was murdered by her husband, who after killing his estranged wife killed himself earlier this week.
Batten a graduate of Harvard’s law school has worked as a developer on such popular title’s as Halo 3 and Gears of War, she was currently assisting Rare on their development of the new Banjo Kazooie. Melissa had separated herself from her husband who had been described as obsessive and verbally abusive, after her husband had purchased a handgun, fearing for her life, she had a restraining order put out against him.
Melissa Batten was a Harvard-educated lawyer, but she was drawn to the world of video games, taking a job with Microsoft. She was seen most recently in an X-Box video promotion for Microsoft that was shown at the company’s Media Busness Summit.
Joseph Batten had a mathematics degree. He also had worked at Microsoft and most recently was a senior project manager at Wizards of the Coast. (NWCN.)
Sadly, it appears that was not enough. Our hearts and minds go out to Melissa’s family in this time of grief, we are so sorry for your loss.
(Thanks, Kotaku.)
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