In a heart-wrenching tale of repeated brushes with the law culminating in a horrifying tragedy, a local man stands accused of the murder of his wife, Marchelle “Hope” Pilger, at the Masters Inn in Augusta.
Michael Paul Mitchell, 53, allegedly strangled his 51-year-old wife with a towel, according to authorities.
The horrific incident unfolded just after midnight on Thursday, prompting a rapid response from authorities following a distress call. Deputies encountered the lifeless body of Pilger, their efforts to revive her tragically in vain. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The focus of the investigation swiftly shifted to Mitchell, a man from Evans with a documented history of brushes with the law. He was detained and charged with murder.
Mitchell’s criminal record paints a troubling picture, with previous arrests for discharging a firearm on another person’s property, pointing a gun at another individual, manufacturing marijuana, shoplifting, and more.
Notably, prior encounters with law enforcement reveal alarming patterns of domestic violence. Reports detail a 2019 incident where Mitchell allegedly broke into the couple’s Grovetown home, physically assaulting Pilger. Despite such incidents, charges were dropped, leaving Pilger vulnerable to continued harm.
Family dynamics further complicated Pilger’s plight, with accusations from Mitchell’s mother adding strain to their relationship. Pilger, facing harassment, had sought police intervention to no avail.
Repeated arrests failed to deter Mitchell’s behavior, with incidents ranging from reckless conduct to acts of aggression in public spaces. Yet, the legal system’s response remained inconsistent, with lenient sentences and unresolved charges allowing Mitchell to remain at large.
In 2019, Mitchell broke a window to a back door to get inside their Grovetown home, pushing Pilger to the ground and punching her twice in the face, a report says. When she called 911, her husband ran to an outside shed.
Mitchell told responding deputies that Pilger has been “cheating on him” and broke his phone, and he denied harming her. But the victim had swelling and bruising to her face, and he was arrested for domestic violence. Yet, six months later, prosecutors simply dropped the charge for unknown reasons.
Part of the family drama stemmed from accusations from Mitchell’s mother that Pilger was involved in the death of her other son, who died from a drug overdose. Pilger complained to police multiple times about the mother-in-law’s harassment.
“Mrs. Pilger stated that the matter has become so bad that she and her husband have separated,” a 2021 report says.
Yet, Pilger continued to return to Mitchell, and the couple moved around between Richmond and Columbia counties, where he could not stop getting into trouble with the law.
In February 2022, Mitchell went to jail for reckless conduct for shooting up the inside of his travel trailer. He told deputies that he “some unknown person was trying to come into his residence through the crawl space in his travel trailer,” so he fired several rounds into the floor of the residence. A deputy observed numerous holes through the side of a trailer and 11 shell casings on the floor.
The same month, Pilger told Columbia County deputies that she was separated from her husband but visited him at a hotel and stayed the night. She said he stole her social security card, bank card and two gift cards.
“She also stated she is an ordained minister and he took her officiant card,” a report says. “She stated he was the only person that had access to her wallet.”
In March 2022, Mitchell came inside a Martinez Circle K and was acting strange. He grabbed items off a shelf and threw them and then removed his shirt and started cleaning himself off in the sink. Deputies found him outside, shirtless. Gold Cross EMS was requested for a mental evaluation. But the officers ended up wrestling with him in the ambulance after he removed restraints, and Mitchell ended up in jail for obstruction.
In February 2023, he was again arrested, this time for firing shots in his mother’s home in Evans, where he was living at the time. He claimed his wife and his mother had recently taken out a $1 million life insurance policy on him and that they were now sending assassins to kill him. Mitchell told deputies he had seen people walking around his home and heard them trying to get inside. He claimed he had shot six people that day by shooting through a wall in the home. Mitchell showed deputies the wall in question.
Deputies learned that Mitchell was living with his mother. She told officers she believed he was paranoid, leaving her afraid of him.
After his release from jail, he returned to his mother’s home and was arrested for trespassing. In April 2023, he was arrested for trespassing again for violating a protective order and showing up at the Evans home where his wife was living.
The courts have done very little to help or hold him accountable.
COLUMBIA COUNTY. A 2012 charge for aggravated assault was reduced to simple battery, which was later dismissed under the First Offender Act.
A 2016 charge of manufacturing marijuana was thrown out on a conditional discharge after three years. The 2019 domestic violence charge where he allegedly punched his wife and left her face bruised and swollen was dismissed within six months. He got probation for the 2022 obstruction and more probation for the two trespassing charges in 2023.
RICHMOND COUNTY. Across the county line, prosecutors did no better with the repeat offender. Two charges for theft by deception in 2006 were simply dismissed after a year, and a 2019 charge for shoplifting has remained pending for five years.
A 2021 arrest for pointing a gun at his wife also sits unresolved in the court system despite a subsequent arrest in 2022 for shooting at gun on someone else’s property, which also remains pending. Likewise, a 2023 arrest for theft by receiving stolen property remains untouched or resolved in Richmond County Superior Court.
Why did Pilger stay with him? A close family friend says Pilger – who went by “Hope” – believed in God and in her marriage vows.
“Trust me when I say me and her entire family begged her to leave him alone,” said the friend, who did not want to be named.
The friend said Pilger’s paranoia and gun violence stems from his use of meth, calling him a “bad ice head.”
Mitchell remains in the Charles B. Webster Detention Center under no bond.
