Crime & Safety

ME: Missing Shelby Woman's Death Ruled Suicide

Medical Examiner says Michelle DeGrace died from a self-inflicted wound.

The Macomb County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death of a Shelby Township woman whose body was found in a wooded area Saturday afternoon in Washington Township was suicide.

Michelle Kristen DeGrace died from a self-inflicted wound, said Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham.

A volunteer search group found DeGrace’s body just before 1 p.m. Saturday in the backyard of a home in Quail Ridge Subdivision near 31 Mile and Campgrounds road, which is about a quarter of a mile away from where her blood-stained vehicle was found early Friday morning.

Find out what's happening in Shelby-Uticawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

During the search efforts Wickersham had said he believed DeGrace was injured inside of her vehicle and then walked away. DeGrace’s keys and purse were found inside of her vehicle.

A passerby reported DeGrace’s abandoned 1999 Dodge Concord on the side of the road early Friday. When sheriff deputies arrived and found blood inside the vehicle, a search party was launched.

Find out what's happening in Shelby-Uticawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

After nearly 12 hours of searching Friday by land and air, the Macomb County Sheriff’s Department returned Saturday morning with about 150 reserve deputies, DeGrace’s family and friends and community members to search between 31 Mile Road and Mound and Campground roads.

The search party mobilized at 9 a.m. Saturday at Romeo High School and was divided up into groups led by sheriff’s deputies.

Mary Cratsenburg, a Romeo resident who did not know DeGrace, said she joined in the search effort because she said she would hope the community would do the same if a member of her family was missing.

DeGrace leaves behind two young girls and a husband.

Family members who joined the search efforts told Patch DeGrace was a happy person and had a beautiful life.

He friends had said during the search that they did not think the stay-at-home mother would have intentionally harmed herself or abandoned her family. “She wouldn’t just up and leave her kids and her friends. She was very close to her friends,” said DeGrace’s friend Tami Bliss.

Another family friend, Ann Bowan, told Patch on Saturday that DeGrace had gone to bed with her husband Thursday night around 10 p.m. Her vehicle was found abandoned about seven miles north of her home just eight hours later. “We don’t know what happened in that time,” said Bowan.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.