ROCKWOOD, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Family and friends told say Cassie Petry and Brian Umphrey had a troubled relationship: domestic violence, trips to the hospital, an order of protection, then a marriage in December, as a Christmas gift to each other.

"She promised me numerous times she wouldn't go back and she wouldn't take him back. And, I guess she thought she could change him," close friend Beth Miller told Volunteer TV.

Miller says no one liked Umphrey, but her friend Cassie couldn't get over him.

"Their relationship bothered me the entire time they were together," Miller continued.

The couple had been married, but divorced in 2008.
Their second courtship, in 2009, was volatile..

Petry even took out an order of protection in July of last year, explaining she had been beaten, choked and held hostage. Umphrey continued to break in the home, she said, while she was being treated at the hospital from one of his beatings. She says he even tried to burn down the house.

Miller was watching Petry's children when Petry and Umphrey went on a weekend get-away. She became concerned when Cassie didn't come home when she was supposed to, and she called police to check out the couple's hotel.

"Were you surprised?" WVLT asked. "I was shocked, but I didn't doubt it," she replied.

Channel 8 turned to Jay Vanover, another one of Cassie's close friends. "Now, Brian [the murder suspect], are you surprised?" We asked Vanover. "No," he quickly responded.

"Do you think it could be someone else? Could it be something else?" "No," he repeated shaking his head.

Vanover says when he saw the abuse, he tried 'tough love' to get Cassie to realize what was best for her.

"I told her I wouldn't have nothing to do with her ever again if she, you know, goes back to him," Vanover sniffed. "I'll always be here for the kids. But I'll have nothing to do with her again. That's kind of one of the last things I said to her."

"When was that?" WVLT asked. "A couple months ago," Vanover said, tearing up.

Petry leaves behind four children.

Her parents live in Michigan and are coming down to take care of arrangements.

They expect the funeral to be held in Rockwood, in Roane County, and they will have another ceremony when they return home.

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PIGEON FORGE, Tenn (WVLT) -- Athens Police arrested a Rockwood man wanted for allegedly killing his wife while the couple was on their honeymoon in Pigeon Forge, according to Athens Police Chief Jack Baldwin.

Brian L. Umphrey, 34, was arrested on I-75 in Athens Tuesday afternoon.

Investigators found the body of Cassandra M. Petry, 36, of Rockwood, at the Days Inn on the Parkway around 11:30 pm last night. Pigeon Forge Police Chief Jack Baldwin says it appears she was stabbed to death.

Baldwin says Umphrey and Petry were married, divorced, and then remarried. He says his office got a call from her sister asking police to check on her welfare at the hotel, after she hadn't been in contact for over 24 hours.

That's when police found her body.