Over the course of some 18 years, Mary and Ron Koontz had, by any definition, a troubled marriage. There were fights and recriminations, they both said, and a great deal of unhappiness.
Finally, in November 2007, Ron Koontz, who had been a teacher and wrestling coach at Towson High School and later became an administrator in the Baltimore County schools system, asked a Circuit Court judge to order his wife evaluated for mental illness because of her "anger and rage," which he said was "becoming more frequent and intensifying."
The petition noted that Mary Koontz had been hospitalized eight years before and that she was still receiving psychiatric treatment. He said that more recently she had begun "hitting me with her fist" and that "my daughter and I live in fear of our safety"- a reference to their teenage girl, Kelsey.
The order was granted, and Mary Koontz, barred from the family's home in Glen Arm by her husband, went to live at their condominium on Marco Island in Florida.
On Friday, she returned. According to Baltimore County police, the 59-year-old woman gained access to the home they had lived in together on Manor Springs Court and made her way to the main bedroom, where she confronted her 66-year-old husband with a gun. He was shot numerous times, police said, but he managed to wrestle her to the ground outside the house and hold her until police officers, summoned by Kelsey, arrived. He later died.
Mary Koontz was charged with first-degree murder and ordered held without bail. On Monday, she was transferred to the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Jessup.
As the legal process was unfolding, former students posted notes of bereavement on Legacy.com, a Web site that provides a forum for condolences and remembrances.
"I just wanted to say your father was such an inspiration to me while attending Towson High School," Cynthia Burton, who graduated in 1968, wrote in a message for Kelsey. "He made me feel smart for the first time in my life. He stood out from the crowd as a great teacher and kind man."
Dorothy Thornton, a resident of Hampstead who worked with Koontz for 30 years in the school system, told Kelsey she was "the light of your father's life."
But it was his closeness to his daughter that seemed to grate most on Mary Koontz, as she described the family's degeneration in a 10-page letter she wrote in February 2008 to Judith C. Ensor, the Circuit Court judge who three months earlier had granted the order forcing her to be evaluated.
