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In those early years, Ellerbee's temper slowly boiled. He lashed out from time to time; Cockerham-Ellerbee found herself tiptoeing. In July 2002, Ellerbee's anger finally erupted. On Independence Day, he beat Cockerham-Ellerbee with a baseball bat, then tried to suffocate her with a pillow, court records show. Police hauled him off and rushed her to the hospital.

When Ellerbee came knocking that evening, begging for forgiveness, she kicked him out and secured a judge's order to keep him away.

That piece of paper -- a restraining order -- promised her a protective bubble, a perimeter of 250 feet that Ellerbee couldn't cross without breaking the law. The stakes were high for Ellerbee; if he broke the rules of the order, he risked going to jail, a condition of his probation for the July assault.

For months, Ellerbee ignored that imaginary line, according to court records. That summer and fall, Ellerbee beat Cockerham-Ellerbee, stalked her on errands, tampered with her fuse box, threatened her relatives and took off with their son Rashieq one afternoon.

As November's chill settled over Jonesville, Cockerham-Ellerbee knew her husband was at a breaking point.

"There was never a break," she said. "That's a bomb getting ready to pop."

Pleas for help

Five days before Ellerbee killed Candice, he broke into Cockerham-Ellerbee's home and stole an heirloom coin collection. He left a death threat in its place.

Cockerham-Ellerbee beckoned Jonesville Police Chief Robbie Coe to take a look at Ellerbee's makeshift graveyard. Coe warned his officers, saying they should keep "a closer watch on what's going on with [the Ellerbees] because it could escalate," he said in a deposition.

The day before Candice was killed, Ellerbee showed up at their son Dominiq's day care. Workers there called police; after Ellerbee fled, Cockerham-Ellerbee rushed to the Jonesville police station. Scott Vestal, one of the officers named in the suit, told her she could go to the magistrate's office and ask them to issue a warrant for his arrest. He said, in a deposition, that it saved him the trouble of talking to all the witnesses or trying to get Ellerbee to admit to what he had done.

Vestal couldn't be reached for additional comment. His lawyer, the current police chief and the mayor did not return repeated phone calls.

The magistrate did believe Cockerham-Ellerbee. He issued a warrant and gave her a copy. She went to drop it off at the Jonesville police station and spotted Ellerbee in her rearview mirror, right on her bumper, sitting tall in his pickup.

As Cockerham-Ellerbee stopped at a red light, she saw Vestal turn onto the street. She flagged down the police officer.

Ellerbee escaped again. Vestal said in a deposition that he wasn't sure the driver was Ellerbee or that he intended to stalk her. The driver slipped away when Vestal tried to take a closer look.

Ellerbee continued to lurk near her that day; she kept calling police.

At dusk, Vestal and his supervisor, Sgt. Timothy Gwyn, met her in her father's yard. She begged them to arrest her husband. About that time, she said, Ellerbee drove by. Vestal and Gwyn hopped in their patrol cars and promised to get him, Cockerham-Ellerbee said.

Both officers dispute that account in their depositions, saying they don't recall having seen Ellerbee drive by them that evening. Coe, the chief at the time, said in his deposition that Gwyn told him he saw Ellerbee drive by that evening and that he hadn't been able to stop him.

Cockerham-Ellerbee said the image is burned in her memory: a blur of blue lights following her husband's truck around a curve. For the first time in more than four months, she let her guard down, confident Ellerbee was finally in jail.

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