BAY VILLAGE – Michael Rothgery, who shot and killed himself Saturday, had planned to commit suicide, but investigators aren’t certain if killing his estranged wife, Mary “Molly” Rothgery, was part of that plan, Bay Village police Lt. Mark Spaetzel said Monday.

Powell Caesar, spokesman for the Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office, said Monday that the couple’s death has been ruled a homicide-suicide.

Molly Rothgery, 40, died of asphyxiation after being suffocated, while Michael Rothgery, 42, died from a gunshot wound to the head, Caesar said.

Spaetzel said that Michael Rothgery appears to have been upset about the couple’s pending divorce. Molly Rothgery filed for divorce from her husband of 10 years on July 23, according to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court records.

Molly Rothgery’s divorce complaint said the couple was “incompatible.”

“He was not very accepting of the divorce,” Spaetzel said. “He obviously did not want it, and we think it kind of precipitated this.”

The body of Michael Rothgery, 42, was found in the backyard of the couple’s Russell Road home about 3 p.m. Saturday after neighbors called police because they hadn’t seen either Rothgery or the couple’s two children in about a day, Spaetzel said.

A .45-caliber pistol was found near Michael Rothgery’s right hand, Spaetzel said. Police are still trying to determine who owned the gun.

Officers found the body of Molly Rothgery in the TV room of the couple’s house. Spaetzel said there was no sign of a struggle and there were no marks on Molly Rothgery’s body to indicate how she had died.

Spaetzel said that she doesn’t appear to have been strangled but may have had her face covered by something soft and then suffocated.

Michael Rothgery, who is the brother of Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Rothgery and Elyria Municipal Court Clerk of Courts Eric Rothgery, left a note, but Spaetzel said it was “not a typical suicide note,” although he declined to discuss specifics.

Michael Rothgery was last seen alive by neighbors around 9 p.m. Friday, Spaetzel said. He had dropped off the couple’s two daughters, 6 and 4, at Eric Rothgery’s house on Friday afternoon, Spaetzel said.

Molly Rothgery is believed to have arrived home at around midnight, and a neighbor told police that he heard a gunshot about 2:15 a.m., Spaetzel said, giving investigators a timeframe to work with.

Eric Rothgery said Monday that the couple’s daughters were staying with family. He largely declined to discuss the deaths of his Michael and Molly Rothgery.

“I loved my brother. I loved his wife,” he said. “We’re just trying to do what’s best for the kids.”

Both Michael and Molly Rothgery had been seeking custody of the children, according to court filings in the divorce case. A temporary restraining order also was put in place in the case, which barred Michael Rothgery from harassing or assaulting his estranged wife.

The order also placed restrictions on how he could spend money and prevented him from leaving the state with his children for more than two weeks.

Joel Fritz, Michael Rothgery’s divorce attorney, said such restraining orders are common in divorce cases and are meant to keep the case from becoming nasty. He said it didn’t bar Michael Rothgery from going to the couple’s home. He said there were no allegations of domestic abuse in the relationship.

“It’s a tragedy for all the families involved, for all of those involved,” said Fritz, who works for the Rothgery family’s Elyria law firm.

The couple married in Philadelphia in May 2000 and had lived in Pennsylvania until moving to Ohio within the past year or so, Fritz said. He said Michael Rothgery had worked as a teacher for Lorain Schools during the last school year, but his contract wasn’t renewed because of budget cutbacks.

Molly Rothgery had been the retail development manager for Great Lakes Brewing Co. in Cleveland for a little more than a year, according to the company’s website.

Pat Conway, one of the brewery’s owners, said Monday that Molly Rothgery was a consummate professional who always had a smile on her face.

“We really can’t say enough about her as an employee and a human being,” he said. “She was a terrific person.”

Several staff members had been planning a surprise party Monday night for Molly Rothgery’s birthday, which would have been Sunday, according to the company’s website. The event went forward anyway as a kind of memorial.

Molly Rothgery’s family is still putting together plans for a funeral, and Conway said he believes that services will be held locally.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

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