A 35-year-old Westminster woman was shot to death in her bathroom last week while her three young children were at home, and her family members told police that they had been worried about domestic violence in her marriage.

Molly Jean Nickal was found dead early Thursday morning in her home on the 5800 block of 94th Place after her husband called Westminster police to report a suicide. However, police have arrested the husband, Gary Lee Nickal, on suspicion of first-degree murder.

Nickal worked at Centennial Bank in Broomfield. She had daughters, who were 8 and 7, and a 3-month-old son, according to police records.

Nickal died after she was hit with two rounds from a 20-gauge shotgun, according to a Westminster Police Department arrest affidavit.

Officers who responded to the call noticed physical evidence at the scene did not match the story Gary Lee Nickal was telling, the police department said. He had told police that he heard a gunshot and found his wife unconscious on the bathroom floor.

However, Gary Nickal had blood on his hands, which he began licking after police questioned him about it, the arrest affidavit said.

One of the couple’s three children also told police, “Daddy took the gun from mommy and shot it so she wouldn’t hurt herself anymore,” the arrest affidavit said.

Police also doubted Gary Nickal’s story after taking measurements of the shotgun. The gun’s barrel was 34 inches, but Molly Nickal’s arm length was just 21.5 inches, the affidavit said.

“It would not have been possible for Molly Nickal to have fired the weapon into her head if she had been holding the gun without the aid of a device to push the trigger,” the affidavit said. “No such device was found in or around the scene of the shooting.”

The gun had been found in a bedroom near the couple’s bathroom.

The Nickals had a history of domestic violence, a Westminster detective wrote in the affidavit after speaking with Molly Nickals’s two sisters.

The sisters told police that the family had been frightened for Molly Nickals because her husband was controlling, was violent and had isolated her from the family. She had told one sister that she felt she was “in prison in her own home,” the affidavit said.

Molly Nickal had tried to leave her husband found it financially difficult. The couple had separated but reunited after the baby was born, the affidavit said.

“Neither of the sisters believed that Molly would have harmed herself and Molly had never attempted or talked of suicide,” the affidavit said.

One sister said, “Molly loved her children and would not have left them by taking her own life,” the affidavit said.

Nickal was taken into custody Friday evening and booked into the Jefferson County Detention Facility. He is scheduled to appear in court at 10 a.m. Friday.

Noelle Phillips: 303-954-1661, nphillips@denverpost.com or @Noelle_Phillips