Deaths a murder-suicide Brown County Medical Examiner Al Klimek (left) and Lt. Bill Galvin of the Green Bay Police Department review a news release with updated information about last Friday's murder-suicide at 1667 Shawano Avenue (photo by H. Marc Larson) The slain wife had threatened to leave, angering her husband By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle The stabbing deaths of a West Side couple have been ruled a murder-suicide, the Brown County medical examiner's office said Monday. Medical examiner Al Klimek said Sissy Nava-Flores died when her husband, Vicente Nava-Flores, stabbed her repeatedly in the upper torso with a kitchen knife in the second-floor bedroom of their house at 1667 Shawano Ave. Vicente Nava-Flores then cut his own wrists and stabbed himself in the heart and lung, dying later at St. Vincent Hospital. The determination wraps up the story of what police said was a troubled three-year marriage, during which Nava-Flores had been beaten by her husband. She had filed a domestic violence complaint on March 24, saying she was sleeping when Nava-Flores woke her up, accused her of lying to him and began to beat her in the face and head, saying he would kill her. He entered a guilty plea to domestic battery and was sentenced to a year of probation and anger counseling. In the days leading up to the murder-suicide, police said, Sissy Nava-Flores had contacted her family about wanting to leave her husband, but she said she was scared about money and his reaction. On Wednesday, she had family members go with her to get her clothes and clothes for the couples' children, ages 3 and 4. Her husband was there, intoxicated, and became enraged, yelling and kicking doors. On Thursday, she returned home. Friday morning, Nava-Flores did not show up at work at the McDonald's on Radisson Street. Her sister, Christine Kolosso, who works with her, tried to call the house and got no answer. Kolosso went to the house with her mother, Diane Kolosso, and heard music from the couple's bedroom, which had a locked door. The mother called her son, Anthony Kolosso, who broke down the door. His sister's body was just inside the door and Nava-Flores was lying on the floor. They called police, who in securing the crime scene found the children, who had been wandering around the house and told police they could not find their parents, and awakened Vicente Nava-Flores' younger brother, who had come home at about 2 a.m., fallen asleep in his first-floor bedroom and told police he never heard anything. Police said Nava-Flores had been sleeping in bed when her husband attacked her. She had more than 20 stab wounds, two-thirds of them on her extremities where she had tried to defend herself. The fatal wounds were to the chest and head. She was found next to the door. After that, they said, Nava-Flores cut his own wrists and stabbed himself three times in the chest, twice to the heart and once in the lung. Police said there was no suicide note but they did find a do-it-yourself divorce kit next to his body. Toxicology reports showing whether Nava-Flores had been drinking or was on drugs at the time of the attack have not returned, Klimek said. According to Ursula Bunnell of Golden House shelter, the attack was the sixth domestic homicide in the area since 1999. There were 42 in Wisconsin in 2001. Whether Flores could have been helped by calling the shelter is unknown, Bunnell said. She said the most dangerous time for a woman is after she decides to leave her abuser. "After the first domestic violence incident, we let victims know they generally intensify," she said, adding most women return to their abuser multiple times before finally making a break. The issue is made tougher when there are children involved, she added. Funeral services for Sissy Nava-Flores are scheduled Tuesday in Sobieski.