STANWOOD – Dayna Marie Fure was so afraid of her ex-boyfriend she got a court order on her 18th birthday to keep him away from her.
It didn’t work.
Ten days later, the Stanwood senior was murdered in her home. Her ex-boyfriend, Mainor Mario Valentin of Seattle, shot her before turning the gun on himself, investigators said Tuesday.
Fure and her former boyfriend, 23, died of gunshot wounds to the head, according to the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office. Her father discovered their bodies about 5 p.m. Monday at the family home in the 29700 block of 40th Avenue NW.
Fure wasn’t at school Monday, police said, and they don’t know exactly when the two died or how Valentin entered Fure’s home, but there was no sign of a break-in.
“She tried to do everything right” to protect herself, longtime friend Tina Stivala said Tuesday.
Fure got a protection order against Valentin the day after he parked outside her workplace, pointed a gun at his head and threatened to kill himself, according to Snohomish County sheriff’s spokesman deputy Rich Niebusch. Fure had broken up with Valentin about two months before.
“Mario has made many verbal threats stating that on my 18th birthday he would take his life,” Fure wrote in a protection order filed in Cascade District Court in Arlington.
Valentin showed Fure a handgun and threatened suicide at a nail salon on May 13. Later in the day, a co-worker at the Merrill Gardens assisted living facility, where Fure had a part-time job as a server in the dining room, called police after seeing Valentin in the parking lot.
Police phoned Valentin, who denied being suicidal and refused to tell police where he was. About three hours later, he came back to Merrill Gardens, where he sat inside his car and pointed a gun at his head.
Negotiators persuaded him to surrender after 90 minutes. Police confiscated the gun, and Valentin was taken to a hospital for a mental evaluation, Niebusch said.
“We know that he was distraught over the breakup and was having problems coming to terms with it being over,” he said.
“He is determined to do whatever to get me back,” Fure wrote in the protection order.
No reports of domestic violence were filed, and police had not received reports that Valentin had threatened anyone but himself, Niebusch said. But officers advised Fure to seek a protection order following the threats.
“She followed through with our advice and promptly got the order the next day,” Niebusch said.
Fure called police once after the order was filed to report a possible violation. She spotted Valentin’s car in the parking lot at a tanning salon, Niebusch said. However, the order didn’t ban Valentin from being in public places, Niebusch said.
The order prohibited Valentin from coming within 1,000 feet of Fure’s home, her sister’s and grandmother’s homes, Stanwood High School and Merrill Gardens.
Fure also asked that Valentin stay away from her at Gonzaga University. She had been accepted to the private Spokane college, where she planned to study law, her friends said.
Fure, who had a 3.78 grade point average, recently received scholarships from the local Rotary, Kiwanis and Eagles clubs, according to Jean Shumate, Stanwood-Camano Island School District superintendent.
“She had a bright future ahead of her,” said friend and co-worker Michael Bliss.
Her death has shaken the 1,565-student high school and the tight-knit Stanwood community, where Fure grew up.
School was in session Tuesday, but many students gathered outside the school, leaving flowers, cards and balloons, and writing messages to their friend and classmate.
“She was awesome. She had a glow about her,” said Stivala, who had known Fure since elementary school.
Fure loved music, singing and dancing. She also loved the color pink.
“Everyone knew Dayna’s car. It was the famous pink Ford Probe,” Bliss said.
Fure was a busy senior who looked forward to graduation. The honor student had lettered in cross-country all four years of high school. She was given the best attitude award this last season, Bliss said.
“I want people to learn from her attitude,” Bliss said.
She always had time for her friends and was quick to stick up for them.
“Dayna had a big laugh and huge heart. I’m going to miss seeing her,” Stivala said.
Reporter Katherine Schiffner contributed to this story.
Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.
Justin Best / The Herald
Students sign a banner in memory of Dayna Fure on Tuesday at Stanwood High School.
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