Editor’s note: This story discusses domestic violence, which includes descriptions of violent acts. Reader discretion is advised.
Days before an MTSU professor died on Smithville Highway, court records show she tried and failed to obtain an order of protection petition in DeKalb County.
Before the incident on Dec. 4, 2025, MTSU professor Ashleigh McKinzie, 41, filed two orders of protection petitions and order for hearing petitions. Both of those efforts failed, according to court documents obtained by Sidelines.
Olivia Kilpatrick, criminal justice major, took McKinzie’s class titled Violence in the Family during the fall 2025 semester. The day before McKinzie died, she told the class that she had filed a restraining order.
“Back then, with pending investigations and things being so new, I didn’t feel really comfortable sharing that,” Kilpatrick said.
Sidelines received the restraining order from the DeKalb County Clerk’s Office. This is what was found.
Petition from March 2025
McKinzie filed an order of protection petition in March 2025, when she said that the person she was filing against — the respondent — was a stalker whom she was dating or intimate with.
The court redacted the name of the respondent because the petition was not upheld.
“In the past, he has said ugly things to me, such as ‘I hope you kill yourself’ and other violent threats,” McKinzie wrote in her recount of the abuse.
The petition requested that the court issue the following orders:
- No contact
- Stay away
- Personal conduct
- Counseling/substance abuse programs
- No firearms
- Costs, fees and litigation costs
These requests ordered the respondent to stay away from McKinzie, her residence and the MTSU campus. He would be ordered not to purposefully tamper with or damage utilities at McKinzie’s home. There would also be protection extended to her pets.
“Then today, he told me that ‘I’m definitely scared of what I might do if I ever see you in person again’ and then ‘I really hope the next guy kills you,’ and I’m scared for my life,” McKinzie wrote in her petition.
The court gave McKinzie a court date for April 2, 2025, and denied her a Temporary Order of Protection. Officials served both parties, but the petition for the Order of Protection was dismissed on the court date because McKinzie did not appear in court.
The reason she did not appear is not included in the documents obtained by Sidelines.
Petition from November 2025
In November 2025, McKinzie filed another petition, describing the respondent as a stalker she was dating or intimate with. In her description of the abuse, she said that the respondent had been following her since March.
Both petitions described the respondent as a white male with black hair and brown eyes. The DeKalb County Circuit Court redacted the respondent’s name.
“Alarms that have been set off, evidence of window tampering, evidence of wifi jamming, lost wifi signal not explained by my carrier,” McKinzie wrote in the petition, claiming that the respondent has repeatedly broken into her home.
At the end of the statement, McKinzie claimed that the respondent has been working with another person.
McKinzie requested the same court orders as in March, adding that she believed the respondent had six weapons under the no firearms order.
The court denied McKinzie a temporary order of protection and assigned Dec. 3, 2025, as a court date. McKinzie did not appear in court, and the case was dismissed on Dec. 18, 2025, 14 days after McKinzie was found dead in DeKalb County.
What we know about the case
Officers found McKinzie dead with her loaded gun beside her on Smithville Highway near Captain’s Point Road.
McKinzie died of gunshot wounds, according to the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office. The autopsy report has not been released at the time of publication.
Todd C. Stanton, a 27-year-old male, was at the scene and also in possession of a gun when the sheriffs arrived, according to Bryant Dunaway, District Attorney of the 13th Judicial District.
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