A wife wound up dead after her estranged husband allegedly rammed his pickup truck into their San Diego home and then set a fire – just weeks after he was slapped with a temporary restraining order due to his apparent manic behavior, cops said.
The victim, Monica Coates, 61, frantically called 911 just after 7:30 a.m. on Monday to report that her husband, Stephen Coates, 62, had crashed his Toyota Tacoma into the home in the Bay Park neighborhood, NBC San Diego reported.
By the time first responders arrived at the scene just minutes later, Coates had allegedly already sparked a fire.
The wife’s body was discovered inside the home in San Diego’s Bay Park neighborhood after the Toyota Tacoma plowed through the front wall early Monday.
The wife’s body was found burned in a bathtub inside the Dakota Drive home when fire crews were able to extinguish the blaze, authorities said.
Coates, too, was found in the bathroom suffering from severe burns.
He was rushed to UC San Diego’s burn center where he remains on an intubator, police said.
Coates is expected to be charged with murder when he recovers. The medical examiner’s office is working to determine his wife’s official cause of death.
Cops, meanwhile, are still trying to determine a motive for the alleged attack but revealed the wife had been granted a restraining order against her spouse on Dec. 1.
Cops are trying to determine what caused the crash but believe the husband purposely drove the truck into the home.
“In this case, unfortunately, the restraining order didn’t protect her,” San Diego homicide Lt. Chris Tivanian said.
The order was granted after Monica reported that her husband’s mental health had rapidly deteriorated – leading him to believe she was conspiring with others to kill him.
She briefly fled the home after he allegedly started asking friends if he should arm himself with a shotgun, court records show.
Need West Coast news? The California Post is coming soon.
Get in early. Sign up for our weekly newsletter before our 2026 launch.
Thanks for signing up!
When she eventually returned, Monica reported finding the home was “booby trapped” with fishing line, and the front door mailing slot had been bolted with a metal plate.
Coates was eventually removed from the home and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
It wasn’t immediately clear when he was released.
Separately, neighbors noted that the husband had moved out of the home around a month earlier after apparently suffering mental health issues.
Bang Duong, who lives nearby, said he’d spoken to Monica just days before Christmas and she had mentioned his mental state.
“She didn’t know what was happening with him,” Duong said. “So we’re, you know, we were just hoping, praying that, you know, it’d get all better.