Daughter of murder-suicide victim searching for answers
In the wake of her mother’s murder, 19 year-old Brandy Bottles is desperately searching for answers.
Bottles’ mother, Julie A. Bottles, 47, was found dead Tuesday with multiple gunshot wounds in what Washington County Coroner Tim Warco is calling an apparent murder-suicide. Julie Bottles was found on a bed in a small, double-wide modular home at 172 Patterson Run Road in West Bethlehem Township. Her live-in companion, Curtis E. Michael, 49, was found dead nearby on the floor. Warco said Bottles was shot first, and then Michael shot himself. The shootings are believed to have occurred between 9:15 p.m. Monday and 11 a.m. Tuesday, Warco said.
The news came as a shock to Brandy Bottles, even after she said she received an unusual phone call from her mother last week.
“On Wednesday, she called and asked to stay with me,” she said. “I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if she saw this coming on.”
Bottles, of the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, said Michael was good to her mother. At times, he could be “standoffish,” but she said he was otherwise, “OK.”
“She said he was everything to her; that he treated her right,” Bottles said of her mother.
Bottles said her mother and Michael were together for about three years. She did not believe the two had an abusive relationship.
“They seemed happy together,” she said. “But you never know what happens behind closed doors.”
Julie Bottles and Michael were found Tuesday by a friend who forcibly entered the home through a window. The couple did not own the property at 172 Patterson Run Road. The property is titled to Mervin E. Detweiler of Carrollton, Ohio. The home the couple shared sits on 133 acres. Access to the property is remote, and the couple had no immediate neighbors.
State Trooper Matthew Jardine, public information officer for the state police Washington barracks, said the couple were tenants on the property. He said additional information would not be provided until the autopsies were complete.
Bottles said Michael was suffering from a blood disease and was ill. She said she hadn’t seen her mother for a year as a result. Nonetheless, the two remained close.
“She was a great person. A survivor. She went through a lot in the past,” Bottles said. “Her family was everything to her. She loved animals and had the biggest heart.”
Bottles said Michael kept several weapons in the home, including a handgun she said was used to kill her mother. Police confirmed a weapon was found at the scene, but additional information was not provided.
In 2011, Michael pleaded guilty to two counts of disorderly conduct after he shot at a utility worker who was stopped near Patterson Run Road May 8, 2010. He was given 6 months of probation.
Bottles said her mother died without a will. As the youngest of five children, and the closest to her mother, Bottles said she’s been left to sort things out. Initially, she said she couldn’t afford a funeral for her mother. However, she qualified for compensation from Pennsylvania Victim’s Compensation Assistance Program, which is facilitated through Washington County Office of Victim’s Services, Administrator Betsy Dane said. Dane believed this is the third murder-suicide case in the county in the last 18 months. While she’s grateful for the help, Bottles said she’ll forever wonder why.
“Maybe he lost his mind,” she said. “I just don’t know.”