Christopher Scott Hiatt was digging his wife's grave Sunday night as she lay shot, her legs bound with a leather jacket, inside her pickup, authorities said yesterday. Hiatt, using a small backhoe tractor that authorities say he took from a paving business at 208 Dusty Lane, had dug a hole at the edge of the woods 2 to 3 feet deep when Surry County sheriff's deputies arrived to investigate a report of a break-in.

Hiatt ran into the woods, and deputies found his wife in the cab of her Chevrolet Silverado pickup, Sheriff Graham Atkinson said.

"We don't know whether he knew she was still alive or not, other than it was to dispose of her," Atkinson said.

Deonna Lynn Hiatt, 19, died Monday morning at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem.

Her estranged husband, Scott Hiatt, 26, was arrested later Monday after a shoot­out with sheriff's deputies and a trooper with the N.C. Highway Patrol. Hiatt was wounded in the shooting. He was listed in fair condition yesterday afternoon at Baptist, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Hiatt will be charged with first-degree murder, Atkinson said.

The couple had a history of domestic violence.

Deonna Hiatt went to court Dec. 11 to ask for a domestic-violence protective order. She complained that her husband cursed at her and pulled the emergency brake and grabbed the steering wheel while she was driving in a car with her daughter, who is 11/2 years old. She also said that her husband harassed her by calling 30 times and told a relative he would create trouble for her.

A judge granted a temporary protective order and set a hearing for Dec. 18.

But Deonna Hiatt failed to show up for the hearing, and the case was dismissed.

Her grandfather, Ronald Wood, said that she married Hiatt about a year ago and that the couple separated about a month ago.

Deonna Hiatt ended her shift at 6 p.m. Sunday at the Wal-Mart store in Elkin and should have stopped at the babysitter's house to pick up her two children.

She also had a 7-month-old boy.

Her family began to worry about 9 p.m. when the babysitter called them and told them that she didn't pick up her children.

Diane Wood, Deonna Hiatt's grandmother, called 911 to report her missing.

The manhunt for Scott Hiatt began at daylight Monday when authorities identified him as a person of interest in the shooting and began looking for him.

Shortly before 11 a.m., an elderly man called 911 to report that someone was banging on his door and that it might be Hiatt.

Within minutes, deputies and state troopers arrived at the house off Sable Lane, about a mile away from the asphalt company.

As they tried to arrest him, Hiatt started firing at the officers.

Two deputies and a state trooper fired back, wounding Hiatt.

The State Bureau of Investigation is looking into the shooting, which is a standard procedure any time a law-enforcement officer is involved in a shooting.

The two Surry deputies involved, Wayne Banks and Kenny Holbrook, have been put on paid administrative leave, also standard procedure, Atkinson said.