Puyallup woman charged in husband’s gruesome killing suffered delusions, records say
A woman who fatally shot her husband in their Puyallup townhouse and reportedly mutilated his body had been suffering from delusions, court records say.
On Friday, Pierce County prosecutors charged Janae Bunten, 34, with second-degree murder for the June 7 death of her husband, 31-year-old Nicholas Andrew Bunten. She is scheduled to be arraigned Friday afternoon from the hospital, where she is recovering from a gunshot wound to the leg inflicted by a law enforcement officer.
The homicide and police shooting both took place at the Buntens’ townhouse in the 500 block of Valley Avenue NE, where they lived with their four children.
Charging papers give this account:
Nicholas Bunten’s parents called the Sheriff’s Department on June 8 and asked deputies to do a welfare check because they hadn’t heard from him all day. When they went to check on him themselves, his parents found his car at home but Janae Bunten told them he’d left.
“They further reported that the defendant had been delusional lately, and had been claiming that she was God’s wife, and that the world was coming to an end,” prosecutors wrote in charging papers.
His parents told deputies there were guns in the house, but one of their children had locked them up because of Janae Bunten’s recent behavior.
Deputies went to the townhouse, but nobody answered the door. A neighbor told deputies she’d heard the couple argue the night before, but it stopped after what sounded like two gunshots.
Janae Bunten’s parents were called to the home by deputies, and her father was able to bring all four children safely outside. He told deputies he hadn’t seen Nicholas Bunten, but Janae Bunten had said he was sleeping.
One of the children said his father had been asleep all day and his mother was trying to “cleanse him” in his sleep, records say.
Another child told deputies their mother had not allowed them to see their father that day because Nicholas Bunten was doing a “spiritual mind thing” and could not be disturbed, according to charging papers.
Negotiators tried to speak with Janae Bunten and spotted her carrying a rifle and turning the lights on and off. She then stepped out of the home carrying a gun.
“Moments later, multiple shots were fired, and the defendant was reported to be down on the ground,” court records say.
The Pierce County Force Investigation Team is looking into what led up to a deputy shooting Janae Bunten. Investigators have said she fired at deputies, and they returned fire.
As she was taken away in an ambulance, Janae Bunten allegedly told deputies she’d shot her husband.
Nicholas Bunten was found dead in a bedroom. There were two shell casings on the floor and one bullet beneath his body.
An autopsy determined Nicholas Bunten died from two gunshot wounds and that his stomach had been cut open postmortem and parts of an internal organ removed.
This story was originally published June 18, 2021 at 12:01 PM.
