Gun-Toting Soccer Mom Found Dead

By KAREN ARAIZA

Updated 10:00 AM EST, Thu, Oct 8, 2009

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WGAL.com

Meleanie Hain – the Pennsylvania woman who made national headlines when she took a loaded gun to her 5-year old daughter's soccer game – was found shot dead, along with her husband in the couple's Lebanon home Wednesday night.

The couple's three children were inside the home at the time, and neighbors told WGAL.com the kids ran out of the house screaming.

"The little boy said, 'Daddy shot mommy,' " said Aileen Fortna .

Another neighbor told the Delco Times that Meleanie, 31, and her husband, Scott, 33, were having marital problems.

Her gun-toting problems started about a year ago when Meleanie picked an ominous day – September 11, 2008 – to show up at her little girl's soccer game with the loaded gun holstered to her hip, very visible and very upsetting to other parents.

Her permit was revoked a few days later, but Hain won a court battle to get it back. The judge who ruled in her favor admonished her at the time, saying she'd "scared the devil" out of other people that day.

Hain then turned around and sued the sheriff who originally took her gun away. She was asking for one million dollars, claiming her constitutional rights were violated, her babysitting business suffered, her children were harassed and she'd been shunned by neighbors.

"She has been stigmatized unfairly," her attorney, Matthew Weisberg said at the time.

Back in December, Hain was runner-up for The Patriot-News "Person of the Year". Despite all the controversy, she said her views on the right to bear arms hadn't changed.

"I am happy being a gun owner."

Autopsies were being performed Thursday. The Hain children were with relatives.