MANCHESTER -- The retired plumber who investigators say fatally shot his wife in their Manchester home -- then turned the gun on himself -- had just been served on Saturday with a restraining order.

"That may have been the breaking point," said Manchester Police Chief John Connolly.

The bodies of Frank W. Kavano, 66, and his wife, Patricia A. Kavano, 63, were found just before 8 p.m. Monday by her adult daughter. They were dead in their home at 925 Brookvale Terrace. The restraining order was on the floor near Frank Kavano's body.

Patricia Kavano, who worked as a nurse at Chrysler, had gotten the restraining order against her husband, claiming he was abusive. A deputy with the St. Louis County sheriff's office delivered the order to him Saturday morning. It said he couldn't be in the home and couldn't have any contact with his wife.

When police arrived at the murder scene Monday night, investigators also found a note that Frank Kavano had typed on the computer. It was written to his wife.

"It was a rambling note, somewhat incoherent," Connolly told the Post-Dispatch on Tuesday. "It did allude to some financial issues and difficulty in the marriage."

The note didn't specifically say he would kill her, the chief said, but "it had a tone of finality to it."

Patricia and Frank Kavano were both shot in the head. Investigators put the time of death as sometime Sunday evening, about 24 hours before the bodies were found.

Patricia's adult daughter from a previous marriage became worried when she got no reply from her mother after emailing her some photographs about 9 p.m. Sunday.

"Customarily she'd hear back right away," Connolly said. "When she didn't, she became concerned."

Connolly said police officers had been called to the couple's home before for problems, but not for any domestic violence. He described Frank Kavano as having "some quirks" that led officers to be familiar with him. A neighbor also apparently had a restraining order against Frank Kavano. So, too, did Frank Kavano's two ex-wives.

Frank Kavano was a retired plumber. The daughter told police she'd seen signs that her mother was emotionally abused but hadn't known of any past physical abuse.

The gun used was an old-style cap and ball revolver.

Connolly said the tragic case underscores how "domestic violence really knows no neighborhood or circumstance, it can happen anywhere, to anyone."

On Jan. 5, Patricia Kavano went to the adult-abuse office at the St. Louis County Courthouse in Clayton to file a petition for an order of protection. She said they lived together at the home, and she asked the court to prevent him from entering the home. She asked the court to make him pay the $925-a-month mortgage. She said her husband was stalking her and had been abusing her or threatening abuse.

In her own handwriting, Patricia Kavano said her husband "threatened to shoot my son in back of head. Hid car keys from me .... prevent me from going to work. Sent emails to my employer. Mentally abuses my step grandchild. Broke her picture frame by throwing it on floor. Locked me out of house. Changed code on garage door. Put all my clothes in car."

A temporary order was granted that same day. Judge Douglas Beach's temporary order said that Frank Kavano couldn't stay at the house on Brookvale. It also said he could not abuse, threaten to abuse, stalk, molest or disturb the peace of Patricia Kavano.

A first conviction for violating the order is a misdemeanor. A second violation is a felony and could have landed Frank Kavano in jail for up to four years or resulted in a fine of $5,000.

A hearing for a full restraining order was set for Jan. 26. At that time, the judge would have been able to hear Frank Kavano's side of the story. A full restraining order would have been in effect for one year.

Frank Kavano had been married twice before, and both of his ex-wives had orders of protection. One went to trial; the other he accepted outright. Patricia Kavano filed for divorce in 2002 but changed her mind, and the case was dropped, said a friend of Patricia Kavano. She had recently decided to file for divorce again.

Hazelwood police handled a similar murder-suicide case on July 16. Barbara Jean Carson, 47, was shot to death by her ex-husband, S.A. Carson Jr., 48, while at Jamestown Mall. He then turned the gun on himself and committed suicide, police say. The couple had lived together in their home in the two years after their divorce was granted. But they were quarreling over payment for the home. Hazelwood police had been called to the couple's home at least four times since the divorce for domestic disputes. About a week before the murder-suicide, they both filed for separate orders of protection.

When a woman files for an order of protection in St. Louis city and St. Louis County, a staff member from Legal Advocates for Abused Women is on hand at the courthouse to offer support and explain what the next step will be in the legal process. The agency also makes sure the woman knows that what she wrote on the petition is part of a court file now and will be seen by the abuser.

"Most women in these situations, they know what will trigger the violence because they've been living it," said Katherine Wessling, managing attorney for Legal Advocates for Abused Women. "We go through the safety planning and tell them about local shelters."

Restraining orders work best, Wessling said, when "the abusers are afraid to go to jail and have a reputation they're protecting. If it's someone who doesn't care if they go to jail, the woman may still experience trouble."

Restraining orders can't control the behavior of an abuser, Wessling added. But the order puts police on notice that they must respond immediately if they get a disturbance call at the home of someone with a restraining order. "State law makes it a priority call," she said. "It puts a different burden on police."

People who work with victims of domestic violence say a woman who has been abused is at the highest risk of being killed by her husband or boyfriend when she tries to end the relationship and leave him, said Colleen Coble with the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic Violence. And while Coble didn't know Patricia Kavano or specific details about the Manchester murder-suicide, she said, in general, that the murder of an intimate partner is not impulsive.

"Often, these aren't situations where the abusive partner is out of control. It's not that he just snapped. It's purposeful and it's planned and it's about regaining control over another person," Coble said.

With a proper safety plan in place, Coble said, "it's important for people to know, women can -- and do -- leave safely all the time."

kbell@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8115




Leah Thorsen and Greg Jonsson of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.