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    MURDER
February 26, 2010

Man charged in wife's death

Police: Woman was stabbed after argument

By ALEX PIAZZA

TRAVERSE CITY -- Nora Nmonye never struggled to find a baby sitter -- she simply walked next door.

Nmonye, 25, of Traverse City, planned to drop off her two children at the neighbors' apartment this weekend, but instead scrambled to find someone else.

Grand Traverse sheriff's officials told Nmonye her neighbor and baby sitter, Shari Lee Marvin, 46, of Traverse City, died inside her Garfield Township apartment off LaFranier Road.

Authorities charged Michael David Marvin, 47, of Traverse City, on Thursday with an open count of murder, contending he stabbed his wife, Shari, in the chest with a knife following an argument. He remains in the Grand Traverse County Jail and faces up to life in prison, if convicted.

Marvin is expected to be arraigned in 86th District Court today.

"I don't understand this," said Nmonye, as she cradled her 2-year-old child. "It's crazy."

Marvin "stabbed his wife out of anger" after an argument about infidelity, court records show.

Authorities arrived at the apartment Thursday after they received a call "stating there was a dire emergency and that he needed an ambulance," according to a sheriff's department press release.

They found Shari Marvin face-up on a bed with blood on her hands and clothing, court records show, and Michael Marvin admitted to authorities he stabbed his wife.

Authorities removed three young children from the home, sheriff's officials said. There was no indication of injuries to the children.

Nmonye said one of the couple's children lived with them; three older children lived elsewhere.

The news came as a shock to Nmonye, whose children frequently stayed at the Marvin residence.

"I left my kids with them," said Nmonye, who last saw Shari Marvin on Feb. 19. "If I saw any sort of red flags, I wouldn't have left my kids with them."

Deputies obtained search warrants Thursday, including for the apartment on Glen Drive where Shari Marvin's body was found.

The warrants allowed investigators to seize items including "bedding from bedroom area where dead woman found, any alcohol or drugs including alcohol or drug containers, whether empty or not, any knives or other weapons ... ."

The warrants permitted investigators to obtain "clothing including shoes, hair specimens, swabs under finger nails for blood or human tissue, swabs of Marvin's skin for blood, photographs of Marvin, a swab/scraping of the inside cheek area of Marvin for purposes of obtaining a DNA sample of human tissue for later testing."

Deputies also received permission to obtain results of blood and urine tests administered to Michael Marvin at Munson Medical Center, where he was admitted as a patient at 8 a.m. Thursday for a "reported suicide attempt with knife wounds to Marvin's neck area."

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