Man Out On Bond After Choking And Threatening His Wife Kills Her And Her Mother Before Taking His Own Life
Shaun Varsos allegedly made a chilling threat to his estranged wife after violently strangling her when she came to pick up her belongings from their shared home.
“I will kill you and your family,” Varsos told his 31-year-old wife Marie Varsos, according to a police report obtained by Oxygen.com. “I will kill myself.”
Marie sought refuge at the home of her mother, Deborah Sisco, but just over a month later—while Shaun was out on bond for the aggravated assault—he carried out his threat, breaking into Sisco’s Lebanon home Monday morning armed with a shotgun and shooting the mother and daughter to death before taking his own life, police said in a statement.
PJ Hardy, of the Lebannon Police, said in a press conference Monday that authorities received two separate “very traumatic” 911 calls from both women around 7:30 a.m. Monday morning reporting a break-in and shots fired at a residence at 1400 Whispering Oaks Drive in Lebanon.
Officers arrived to find Sisco and Marie dead in the home and learned Shaun—who had been injured during the incident—had fled in a rented vehicle, authorities said.
Hardy said one of the women was able to return fire and shoot Shaun during the altercation before the women were killed.
Police were able to “monitor and track” the rental vehicle’s movements and ultimately locate it in west Nashville, where they found Shaun dead inside it from what authorities believe was likely a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“Our thoughts go out to everyone that’s involved in this situation, all the family members,” Hardy said, calling the it a “very tragic” incident.
Hardy described the shooting as a “domestic-type situation” that had “been continuing over the last several months” before it reached a breaking point.
Shaun was released on bond on March 11 after being arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment, stemming from the alleged attack on his estranged wife on March 7, according to local station WSMV.
According to a Nashville Metropolitan Police Department report obtained by Oxygen.com, Marie told police the couple was going through a divorce and she had gone to their former home to collect her belongings when Shaun confronted her and blocked her from entering.
Marie asked whether she could pick up her belongings and Shaun allegedly “became enraged and began yelling” at her.
She tried to de-escalate the situation by walking away, but Marie told police Shaun picked her up under her arm pits and placed her on the front porch of the home.
“The victim advised the suspect grabbed her around the neck with both hands and began to apply pressure,” the report stated.
Marie told police Shaun strangled her until she lost consciousness. When she regained consciousness, she was inside the home. Shaun had taken her phone and keys, pulled her into a “game room” in the house and pulled out a semi-automatic pistol, according to the report.
He cocked the weapon, pointed it at her and threatened to kill her and her family. He continued to hold her at gunpoint for about an hour until she finally convinced him to let her leave the house, she told police.
Police noted she had “visible marks on her neck consistent with strangling” and had a chipped tooth that she believed she got while she was unconscious.
Marie had filed for divorce on March 4, citing irreconcilable differences.
