Shooting victim sought to leave her boyfriend
6/6/2006Michelle Mielecki experienced her greatest fear when her boyfriend of about three years shot her seven times outside his South Toledo apartment during the weekend.
"Dying or someone I love or close to me dying" was listed as her biggest fear on her posting on the myspace.com Web site, which shows a happy picture of Ms. Mielecki and her boyfriend, Andrew Brown.
Conversely, Mr. Brown said in his profile on the same Web site that his fear was being alone.
Capt. Ray Carroll said yesterday police have learned through their investigation that Ms. Mielecki intended to break up with Mr. Brown, who fatally shot himself after killing his girlfriend.
The captain said he didn't know if Ms. Mielecki had told Brown she planned to break up with him before the shootings occurred.
"I don't know if that alone set him off. You'll never know why," he said.
"Two good kids. Two young people. And just a moment of emotional distress."
Captain Carroll called the deaths of the University of Toledo students "tragic," adding that "if someone was there just to calm him down, maybe this wouldn't have happened. "It's a terrible thing for two young people to die like that over something they would have gotten over."
After her death, more than a dozen people wrote messages to Ms. Mielecki's myspace site, saying they couldn't believe what happened and that they loved her and would miss her.
"I am going to miss you so much ... I cannot believe he took you away from us. You will always be the greatest cousin ever ... thank you so much for everything ... i love you so much ... R.I.P.," one message read.
Ms. Mielecki turned 21 a little more than a week before she was killed. She and Mr. Brown, also 21, were 2003 graduates of Wapakoneta High School. She was a marketing student; he was studying criminal justice and accounting.
Family and those who knew the couple said they couldn't understand or explain what happened.
Residents at Arlington South Apartments heard Ms. Mielecki screaming - "Andrew! No!" - and gunshots early Saturday morning. Responding authorities pronounced the couple dead at the scene.
Ms. Mielecki was found at the top of the stairs. She was shot in an inside hallway on the top floor of the three-story apartment building. Brown was found inside his two-bedroom apartment.
Contact Christina Hall at
chall@theblade.com
or 419-724-6007.