Across multiple court filings in the last several years, including those relating to a restraining order and an ongoing divorce proceeding, a Dublin couple appeared to be in a toxic relationship that had been affecting their kids. Then, according to police, the in-laws stepped in.On Monday, the Bay Area was awash with reports about the Saturday murder of 40-year-old New York Times Games engineer Jonathan McKinsey in the East Bay city of Dublin, allegedly at the hands of septuagenarian in-laws. But in the days since the story broke on Sunday, multiple news agencies have gained access to court records that detail a tumultuous marriage, allegations of physical and emotional abuse on both sides, and an ongoing divorce and custody battle, all of which likely contributed to the ultimate violent tragedy.McKinsey, who was transgender and reportedly transitioned in 2010, alleged emotional and physical abuse by his in-laws and wife pertaining to his identity. The couple had apparently been together for more than 17 years.We noted yesterday that McKinsey faced misdemeanor child abuse charges as well as a charge of neglect in Alameda County — the former relating to an incident, reported by McKinsey's wife, Candice Jang, in which she said he hit their six-year-old son in the face with an open hand, and the latter relating to an October 2025 incident in which police found the couple's two-year-old at home unattended in an upstairs crib. As the New York Times reports, McKinsey said in court filings that the October incident was a set-up, and that Jang, who was responsible for the children's care during the workweek, had purposely not told him that the child was left upstairs when she left the house, and the police arrived to find the child unattended.The accusations went both ways, with McKinsey alleging both abuse at the hands of Jang and her parents, and neglect on the part of Jang when it came to feeding and bathing the children. "When I protested about any of this, she threatened me with harm or said she would call the police and tell them I was hurting our children," McKinsey wrote in the filing, per the Times.Jang claimed in an October 2025 filing that McKinsey had grabbed her by the forearms during an argument and dropped her on the corner of a table, leading to a fractured vertebra in her back. She further claimed that McKinsey had emotionally abused her mother, 76-year-old Shili Chen.McKinsey claimed that Jang had once hit him over the head with a frying pan and forced him to eat a cockroach, and that in a different physical fight, she struck him on the head with a mirror, and in the ensuing struggle, the mirror broke and he had cut a tendon and nerve in his hand that had resulted in permanent nerve damage.Jang's parents, McKinsey told the court, had apparently never accepted his gender transition, and he alleged that her father, 76-year-old Shouyong Zhang, had punched him in the chest while he was recovering from double-mastectomy surgery in 2010. As Bay Area News Group reports, he further alleged that Jang had tried to pull "medical tubes" out of his body after undergoing a procedure, and he alleged that she had one time encouraged him to try to take his own life.McKinsey also said, per the California Post, that in one instance, after their six-year-old was asking to wear his baby sister's dresses, something that he referred to as a "phase," his mother-in-law had berated the child, calling him a "disgusting queer" and a "pervert," and allegedly hitting him on the back of the head. McKinsey wrote that he asked Chen to stop, and she turned and called him the same names."She blamed me for [my son] wanting to wear his sister’s dresses and told me to get out of ‘her house’ even though we were in the home owned by Candice and I," McKinsey reportedly wrote.McKinsey filed for his own restraining order against Jang last December, after reportedly moving out of the house they shared. Jang and her attorneys argued that McKinsey had shown a pattern of domestic violence, and she had successfully gained temporary full custody of the children as the divorce proceeding continued.Jang's request for a restraining order also alleged that McKinsey had "threatened to kill me and my parents."Contrary to earlier reporting, McKinsey had pleaded not guilty to the child abuse and neglect charges, per Bay Area News Group, and a court-ordered parenting class would have led to those charges being dismissed, once he had completed 12 classes.Zhang and Chen are being held at Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder, felony conspiracy, dangerously firing a gun, and child endangerment that could have caused major injury or death. It's unclear if one or both of the couple's children were present at the time of the shooting, which took place in the parking lot of a city park on Saturday afternoon.Witnesses had suggested that the couple "took turns" firing shots at McKinsey, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities are likely looking seriously into whether Jang knew anything of her parents' plans.Previously: Man Identified As NYT Games Engineer Reportedly Killed By In-Laws In Dublin ...read more read less