Restraining order details fear of Chinook native later shot, killed

BOZEMAN (AP) — A Montana man who prosecutors say confessed to killing his ex-girlfriend in her home had broken into the residence on previous occasions, the woman said while seeking a restraining order that was served 17 days before she was shot to death.

Chinook native Darcy Buhmann said Anthony Tobias Fagiano had been stalking her and stealing things from her house in Bozeman. She said she found him hiding in a closet Dec. 4 in one of her children’s bedrooms. The child was not at home.

“He ran after me, trying to grab me,” she wrote in her January petition. “I jumped from the top of my stairs to the bottom and out the front door.”

She said she escaped in her car.

Her petition said she called police but Fagiano wasn’t arrested.

“I am terrified for the safety of me and my children,” Buhmann, 37, wrote. “It would not surprise me if he tried raping or seriously injuring me.”

Buhmann was shot to death Wednesday in the closet of her bedroom.

A Bozeman police officer investigating the shooting did not immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press seeking comment about the Dec. 4 incident.

Buhmann’s petition said she had dated Fagiano for about six months and had broken up with him about three months earlier.

She said Fagiano was sending her text messages suggesting he was watching her.

“He is dangerous and unpredictable. I am constantly watching my back and afraid,” she wrote.

Fagiano acknowledged breaking into her house several times, stealing undergarments and personal documents and reading her journal, Buhmann’s petition said.

It said one of her children had seen Fagiano peeking into windows at her house, and one night she used Mace to get him away from her house.

The five-year restraining order was granted and Fagiano was served Feb. 21. It ordered him to stay at least 300 feet away from her and her children, workplace and vehicle.

Police Capt. Andy Knight didn’t say if anyone else was in the house at the time of the shooting, but he said that Buhmann’s children were safe.

Fagiano, 35, is charged with deliberate homicide. Court records said he acknowledged in texts to Buhmann’s ex-husband and some of his family members that he had killed her.

A family member urged him to turn himself in to law enforcement.

Fagiano appeared in court Wednesday with public defender Mary Kramer, who did not return a call from the AP. He did not enter a plea.