She Didn’t Want to Pay for a Divorce. So She Shot Her Husband in His Sleep and Blamed a Home Invasion

Mar. 15, 2025

Melanie Biggins.Photo: Jackson County Detention Center

A Missouri woman who admitted to killing her husband because she couldn’t afford to divorce him has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

On Monday, Jan. 27, Melanie Biggins, 42, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in connection with the Aug. 31, 2022, slaying of Ettienne L. McEwan, online court records show.

She faced life in prison if she was convicted of the original charges.

As PEOPLE previously reported, at about 1 a.m. on Aug. 31, 2022, Biggins called 911, claiming an intruder broke into the home she shared with McEwan and shot him while they were both asleep in bed.

Officers found Biggins performing CPR on her husband on the bed when they responded to the call.

But it was all a lie.

Her story started crumbling when officers began asking her what happened.

She had initially told police the only weapon in the home was her husband’s rifle, according to a probable cause statement. But then she admitted that she bought a gun from a pawn shop, the probable cause statement said.

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Finally, she admitted to the officers that she had been having an affair for the last year-and-a-half of her nine-year marriage.

source: people.com