Bunnell Man and His Family Wake Up to Find Ex at Foot of His Bed With a Knife, Ready to Attack

It is among the worst imaginable situations in one’s home: to wake up and see an armed, threatening assailant at the foot of the bed. It was even worse for R.G. and his family: his two young children were in the bedroom, as was his girlfriend. The assailant clenching a knife was his ex-wife, Melinda Gould, 40. She’d previously faced a stalking charge. Earlier that same night she’d been on the hunt for a gun. She said she’d gone across the street from her apartment too buy one from a man but was unsuccessful.




Had she acquired a gun, she would later tell a Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy, she would have “blew his brains out and not thought twice about it,” she said in reference to her ex, adding that she “would have shot the girl if she came at me.”

In the event, it was R.G, who came at her, pinned her to the ground and disarmed her while awaiting sheriff’s deputies. Gould was arrested and charged with armed burglary, a felony punishable by up to life in prison, two counts of felony child abuse and a count of aggravated domestic violence assault, all third-degree felonies. She was booked at the Flagler County jail Friday (April 26) on $20,000 bond on three of the charges, and no bond on the burglary charge.

She happened to have been on a pre-trial diversionary program after being charged with trespassing at R.G.’s Bunnell home last April. Violation of that deferred prosecution agreement means the charge is reinstated. She was held on no bond on that charge, too.

She wasn’t at the county jail very long before she drew yet one more felony charge when she was accused of throwing a computer tablet at another inmate, after throwing the tablet at the ceiling to damage or break it. Inmates are issued tablets for their communications and entertainment.




The incident that landed her in jail had begun ominously when Gould called 911 at 2:43 Friday morning. She told the dispatcher that she’d woken up from a nightmare and that she’d heard gunshots at her ex-husband’s home where her children live. (She lives in Ormond Beach, her husband lives in Bunnell.) She asked for what’s called a welfare check from deputies–essentially, a check of a property to make sure nothing is amiss. Deputies went to the ex-husband’s house on Sherwood Street. All was quiet on that front.

She had requested that a deputy call her to report back. The deputy called and told her all was well. Her response: “Go fuck yourself.”

It wasn’t long before she had driven from her place at the San Marcos apartments in Ormond Beach to the Bunnell house.

One of her children had been sleeping on the couch in the living room and groggily saw his mother walk through the door. He wasn’t sure what she was doing there. Next thing she was at the foot of R.G.’s bed, asking him and his girlfriend what was up with them. The couple was immediately frightened. The two children were terrified. R.G. rushed her and took her down.

She told deputies that she’d gone to her ex’s house to check on her kids. The door was unlocked, so she walked in. Nothing was stirring in the house, and she might have seen one of her children sleeping in the living room. Undeterred by the normalcy, she went to the kitchen and grabbed a knife, then walked into the master bedroom and saw everyone sleeping. She said she was going to attack R.G. but he preempted her by taking her to the ground.




She told deputies her intention was to feign some kind of mental breakdown to induce a Baker Act–the usually involuntary commitment to a psychiatric facility of an individual threatening harm to self or others–thus supposedly avoiding charges. (Charges and Baker Acts are not mutually exclusive when an individual breaks the law.) That did not work, although she told deputies that she suffers from bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other mental health issues.

At the jail, she told deputies that she was intentionally trying to break the tablet because she was unable to speak with her children.

In 2019 she violated a no-contact order in effect between her and R.G. She’d called R.G. (a violation of the order) and left a message: “Hey I wanna hear my kids’ voice today but if I don’t I’m calling the cops on you for kidnapping.” The violation charge was dropped within days. In 2022, after opening a beer at a Family Dollar without paying for it first, she was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, a felony charge later downgraded to a misdemeanor for which she successfully completed a diversionary program. The same year she was charged with cyberstalking after repeatedly contacting R.G.’s girlfriend and threatening to “find her.”

“It should be noted,” her arrest report at the time stated, “that Melinda Gould does have a violent temper.” The charge was dropped.