Sister of Olathe murder-suicide victim says violence was never imagined

As Amy Shaffer Mabion entered her Olathe home for what would be the last time, she didn’t know she was walking into a trap.

It was a trap laid by Philip Mabion, the man who had once vowed to love and honor her. She had filed for divorce and he was not happy about it, but those who knew them best never considered he would resort to violence.

“There was never a time in any of our minds that we ever, ever imagined him harming her,” her sister, Stacy Hilliard, said Friday.

Olathe police later told Hilliard that last Monday afternoon, as Amy Mabion stepped inside, her husband and father of their three children, came up behind her and put a bullet in her head.

There were no signs of a struggle, police said. She died instantly.

Philip Mabion then shot himself.

Philip Mabion was still alive when first responders arrived, but died later at a hospital.

“I still can’t believe he actually did it,” Hilliard said. “We were completely blindsided.”

The Mabions, both 36, had been married for about a decade. She had been a stay-at-home mom to raise their sons, ages 12 and 9, and a 6-year-old daughter.

He operated a home health care business affiliated with the Kansas City church where his father is the pastor.

Hilliard said that Philip Mabion was a man with two distinct personalities.

“He had charisma and personality,” she said. “He was funny, witty, chatty.”

But he was narcissistic and could also be verbally abusive and mean, she said.

“He had these demons that were dark,” she said.

For years, Hilliard said her sister tried to make the marriage work because of their kids and because she felt like she could help him become a better person.

“She didn’t want to give up on him,” Hilliard said.

Amy Mabion filed for divorce on June 1.

He told her he wasn’t going to make it easy for her, and refused to move out of their house.

A planned family vacation to the Dominican Republic was already paid for, and they went ahead and took it last month.

But things between them only got worse in recent weeks, and Amy Mabion was planning to file legal action to have him restrained from staying in their house, according to Hilliard.

Amy Mabion and her children spent the weekend before she was killed at her sister’s house.

“It was emotionally exhausting for her to be around him,” she said.

But they talked on the phone, and on Monday morning, Amy Mabion planned to stop by the house in Olathe and pick up clothes for her and the kids. Her husband told her he had a business meeting and wouldn’t be there. He also asked her to stop at an ATM and get money to pay the landscaper.

Hilliard said she and her sister were talking on the phone as she pulled into her driveway.

“She said, ‘I’ll call you back,’ ” Hilliard recalled.

Hilliard thinks Philip Mabion decided that if he couldn’t have her sister, then nobody would.

“He wasn’t going to allow her to be happy without him,” she said. “For so many years she tried to help him. It was the ultimate betrayal.”

Hilliard said her sister was always such a happy, friendly and loving person who she can’t imagine living without.

“She was my absolute everything,” she said.

She and her husband, along with other family members, will now raise her nephews and niece. She said when she hugs them now, she feels like she is hugging Amy.

“They are all of her that I have left.” she said.

This story was originally published August 4, 2017 at 2:04 PM with the headline "Sister of Olathe murder-suicide victim says violence was never imagined."