Mark and Debby Constantino Die in Domestic Violence Incident

[PPI Brian]

The paranormal community was shocked by the tragic deaths of Mark and Debby Constantino yesterday. Here's the text of an article from Sparks Nevada Channel 2 News:

Three people are dead after a series of crimes on Tuesday that took place at a home in Reno and an apartment in Sparks.


It began when a woman returned to her home around 8:00am Tuesday, in the 2300 block of Escalera Court in North Reno, to find her male roommate dead. She called the Reno Police Department and also let them know that her other roommate, Debby Constantino, was missing and she was concerned for her safety. 

As police investigated the death, they also worked to locate the missing woman.  By pinging her cell phone, they found that she may be at the Courtside Garden Apartments near 15th Street and Oddie Boulevard in Sparks.  When officers responded there, someone began shooting at them through the door. Through negotiations, they discovered that the Debby was inside and that she was being held hostage by her estranged husband.  Sparks Police identify that man as 53-year-old Mark Constantino and say he?s the one who fired the shots at them and is suspected in the death at the north Reno home.

Negotiators from Reno and Sparks Police along with the local FBI attempted for several hours to get Mark Constantino to surrender.
Around 1:30 p.m., Sparks Police said their SWAT team made entry into the home and found Constantino and his estranged wife, who they say he kidnapped from the Reno location, dead inside the unit.

Investigators say the apartment belonged to an adult child of the former couple.

The name of the man killed in the Reno home have not yet been released.

Sparks High School was placed on a precautionary code yellow lockdown during the incident.

Channel 2 News has obtained court records that show Mark and Debby Constantino had quite a violent history.

We first met Mark and Debby Constantino back in 2007. They were both paranormal investigators, specializing in EVP, Electronic Voice Phenomena, or ghost voices on tape. But according to court records, their relationship turned violent earlier this year.

We shot video with Mark and Debby Constantino back in 2007 on a ghost adventure. We met up with them several times as they attempted to speak to ghosts through Nevada and across the country. Their website, SpiritsSpeak.com shows the couple and their numerous nationwide visits to different conventions.

But how the couple appeared on camera and at events was dramatically different from the picture painted by recently obtained court records.

In march of this year Debby Constantino was arrested at a home in north Reno. According to the records she and mark were fighting over money when she scratched him. It escalated and she allegedly sliced his arm with a kitchen knife. She was charged with domestic violence and battery with a deadly weapon. She was never able to have her day in court.

Then just six weeks ago, Mark along with their daughter Raquel, allegedly went to a home, pulled Debby out of a car by the neck and then dragged her inside. Documents accuse Raquel and Mark of beating Debby to the point of breaking her nose and causing bleeding. Records say Mark then strangled her., causing her to nearly pass out.
 
Raquel was charged with kidnapping, domestic battery, battery and vehicle burglary.

Mark was charged with kidnapping, domestic battery by strangulation and domestic battery.

We also heard from many of you on our social media sites asking why Mark Constantino was let out of jail after being accused of kidnapping Debby. In the court documents we obtained, it shows that kidnapping is usually a 'no bail' charge, but in this case both Mark and Raquel were granted bail by a local judge. Mark's bail was set at $40,000, which was allowed to be paid by bond... and Raquel's was set $30,000, also bondable.

Both Raquel and Mark were ordered to stay away from Debby Constantino

Stay with Channel 2 News for the latest on this developing story.

http://www.ktvn.com/story/30090514/sparks-high-on-lockdown-as-police-work-critical-incident-related-to-reno-death-investigation-7

[PPI Karl]

You beat me to it, Brian.  Thanks for posting this.

You all know my thoughts on the Constantino's "professionalism."  I don't want to sound mean about such an unhappy turn of events, so I'll just stay silent on this one.   

[PPI Marlene]

I was shocked by this tragedy.  Although I wasn't a fan of theirs, to be taken by such an act is unthinkable.  I have been abused in a relationship and it's an awful thing to experience.  It's so sad. She was trying to get a fresh start without Mark and this happens. 

[PPI Debra]

I was speechless.
It is shocking.

[PPI Brian]

Yes, it was a terrible shock. I once held them in high regard as paranormal investigators, because of their "expertise" in EVP, but my opinions changed over the years, so I won't say anything derogatory here. I've read a lot of comments throughout the paranormal blogo-sphere where people are saying Mark was "possessed" by "evil spirits" they encountered over the years. I won't dismiss those "claims" out of hand, but to me it does seem as if people are using that as an excuse. Saying "Evil Spirits Made Him Do It" equates to absolving him of responsibility. Mark and Debby had a stormy relationship, there is no doubt about that. They had many violent encounters in recent years that resulted in restraining orders being filed and even some jail time for Mark and their adult daughter. If I were to speculate on the causes of the problems here, I would suspect meth amphetamine was involved. But in the end, they were both at fault. Mark took the incredibly stupid steps that resulted in their untimely demise. And for that he is ultimately responsible.

Ghost Adventures couple had history of domestic abuse
Marcella Corona, Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal 2:57 p.m. EDT September 24, 2015

SPARKS, Nev. -- A couple featured in the Travel Channel series Ghost Adventures who were found dead earlier this week had a long history of domestic problems, according to court records from the past three years.

The bodies of Mark Constantino, 53, and his 52-year-old wife, Debra Constantino, were discovered Tuesday inside their daughter's apartment after a standoff with Sparks and Reno police. They had filed temporary protection orders against each other several times, according to documents obtained from Washoe County District Court.

The Constantinos were featured in recent years on the Travel Channel series, including episodes shot at the Mustang Ranch brothel east of Reno, Goldfield Hotel and Market Street Cinema in San Francisco.

In July 2012, Mark Constantino filed an order against his wife claiming that he was worried she might stab him while she was intoxicated. A day later, he dropped the order.

In July of this year, he filed a second order claiming she had tried to stab him. The incident stemmed from an argument over a credit-card debt.

"She grabbed a knife, swiped at me," Mark Constantino stated on the second protective-order request. "I said I would call the cops. She started screaming at me."

That's when a neighbor called police, he said in the court document.

"She went into the bedroom and said I threatened to rape her like she usually did," he said. "The cops were outside and heard her screaming."

In a previous fight, she had stabbed him, he said then. An extension for the protective order was denied after Mark Constantino failed to appear in court.

Then in August, Debra Constantino filed for divorce and asked for a protective order against her husband. By that time, she was staying with a friend at a house in northwest Reno -- the same house where a man's body was found at around 6:30 a.m. PT Tuesday, Reno police Lt. William Rulla said.

In Debra Constantino's request for the protective order, she claimed her husband and their 23-year-old daughter had beaten and strangled her to the point of passing out.

"He kept texting me telling me to come back," Debra Constantino said of her husband at the time. "Then he said my dog got away."

She and a friend -- it is unclear whether it was the same friend at whose house she was staying -- arrived at her daughter's Sparks apartment when they were attacked, according to the court documents. Debra Constantino also accused her daughter of beating her friend.

"Mark ripped me out of the car and dragged me into the house like a rag doll," she said in a statement.

Debra Constantino then was beaten and strangled over and over and dragged from room to room, according to the court document.

"If the police had not gotten there in time, I absolutely (would have) been dead," she said. "He said, 'I am the devil and I'm going to slit your throat.' I noticed his work razor had been missing."

Mark Constantino was arrested in August and booked on suspicion of domestic battery by strangulation, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree domestic battery.

Tuesday's incident unfolded after Reno police received the call about the man's body discovered in a northwest Reno home. The name of the victim in that apparent homicide has not been released, but Sparks police Lt. Rocky Triplett said all of the deaths are "directly related."

Officers later learned that the man's female roommate -- later determined to be Debra Constantino -- was missing. Officers tracked her cellphone to her daughter's Sparks' apartment, but when Sparks officers knocked on the door, they heard several shots fired and a man yelling for police to stay away.

"Give me 15 minutes to gather my thoughts, or I'll kill her," the suspect told police, according to Reno Deputy Police Chief Tom Robinson.

Police began negotiating with the suspect, but officers eventually used explosives to blow the door open and found both Debra and Mark Constantino dead inside. Officials weren't saying how all three died but said Mark Constantino fired at officers who approached his daughter's apartment door; police did not return fire.


Contributing: The Associated Press

[PPI Marlene]

Unfortunately, it sounds like the daughter is just as bad as he was!!

[PPI Tracy]

I know this horrible tragedy happened a few weeks ago but I wanted to share my thoughts, if that is okay.

I remember several years ago when Leslie Shapiro and I (when we were temporarily insane and still with the group-that-shall-not-be-named), drove up to Wolfe Manor in Clovis, CA to do a live investigation.  Two of the people that were with us up there were the Constantino's.  Leslie and I did an EVP session with just the two of them up in the attic that lasted about two hours or so.  During that time, I had this feeling as though Debby wore the pants, while Mark fumed and burned, just under the surface.  She would say things to provoke not the "spirits" but to provoke Mark.  You could almost hear him swallow the words he wanted to say.  Digesting his anger, almost choking on it at the same time.  I remember thinking to myself that evening that Mark must not respect himself and Debby definitely didn't respect him.  I spent an hour in another area of the house doing an additional EVP session that lasted about 30 minutes.  During that time, I recall that Mark just said anything he could to make Debby wrong.  It was like he wanted to make her look or feel stupid.  They bickered constantly, off camera, and I do remember an argument that they had (yelling) in the dirt lot out in back of Wolfe Manor.  It was as if they went on this type of behavioral automatic pilot when they were around the cameras and as quick as they were turned off, they jumped right back into a destructive pattern of treating each other.  They also did this as if no one else could hear or observe them.  Like they were somehow in this bubble and it was just the two of them, even when many others were present. 

I have thought often about that night and what I witnessed.  I've thought about it in a sad kind of way, here in there over the years.  I'm not sure why, because I really didn't "know them" personally.  Their hurtful way they treated each other did stay with me though.  When I read what happened, I was shocked, yet....I wasn't.  I'm sure that might sound horrible, but it is the truth. 

Anyway, not sure why I wanted to share this.  I guess I just needed to.  I feel terrible for the family and friends they both left behind.  There are no answers to a crime like this, as much as we would like to draw parallels and try to write out a story that makes sense in our brains and emotions.  I do hope wherever Mark and Debby are, they somehow made peace with each other's souls and are able to move to a place to feel that peace....whether together or apart. 

[PPI Brian]

I remember that investigation. Tim and I watched you all on a streaming web server and witnessed some of the bickering between them.