Circumventing the focus a lil away from the toilet training issue for a moment, here's the first article mentioned in the
OP:
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Domestic murders in Massachusetts on pace to surpass 2009By Danielle Ameden/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Aug 14, 2010 @ 11:59 PM
Katie MacDougall was killed by her fiance in 2007. Photo contributedKatie MacDougall's family and co-workers at the Staples corporate headquarters in Framingham never saw any black-and-blues or other red flags.
The 23-year-old was fun, optimistic and giddy about the baby she was expecting with her fiance. To her colleagues, he "seemed like a nice guy."
So the news that Taylor Hurst strangled to death the young mother-to-be in their Worcester apartment on March 4, 2007, came as a shock.
"It's still something that I don't understand, I just can't get my head around," said Libby Dawe, who worked with MacDougall at 500 Staples Drive.
So far this calendar year, there have been 27 cases of domestic violence-related deaths in the state.
There were a total 28 in 2009.
Jane Doe Inc., the state's nonprofit coalition against sexual assault and domestic violence, is also tracking two new cases that could bring this year's count to 29.
One is the murder of Heather Alleyne, 19, of Framingham. Police found the mother of two babies stabbed to death in her Oak Terrace condo last Monday.
Although authorities have not yet ruled it a domestic homicide, Alleyne's husband, Kyle Alleyne, is wanted by police as a person of interest in the case.
For abuse victims, stories like these are frightening reminders.
"It can be very scary because I think what we hear from people is, 'Oh my God, that could be me' or 'That could have been me,"' said Mary Gianakis, director of Voices Against Violence in Framingham.
Also last week, Joseph Ventola, 66, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 2007 stabbing death of his wife Esther, 60, in their Milford home. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility for parole after 15 years.
In MacDougall's murder, Hurst was sentenced in 2008 to 18 to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
While a domestic homicide, her family believes MacDougall's death was a horrific, isolated incidence of violence and not part of a pattern of abuse.
Her older brother, Damien, said Hurst appears to have snapped, partly due to his drug abuse, unemployment and the stress of settling down.
"I'm not sure if Taylor felt comfortable becoming a father and a husband all at once," Damien MacDougall said.
Authorities said Hurst admitted to using crack cocaine, and after the murder he sold a sapphire and diamond ring he had given MacDougall to buy drugs.
She was three months pregnant with a baby boy when she died.
Her family forgave Hurst and supported the plea deal accepted by a Worcester Superior Court judge.
"Katie loved him and he was going to be the father of my nephew and my mother's grandchild," Damien MacDougall, 36, of Plymouth, said last week.
"We've seen or heard so many stories about people whose lives are devastated by something like this," he said. "We knew the answer wasn't in bitterness or anger."
Dawe and co-workers Diane Choquette and Amy McGrady at Staples last week recalled their former colleague as a happy person and huge Red Sox fan who loved helping people and driving demolition cars on the weekend.
At Staples, she worked for a temp agency doing purchasing, but she talked about going back to school to become a nurse.
She and Hurst, a native of Louisiana, were in a long-distance relationship until they moved in together in Worcester and soon after became engaged.
Her MySpace page is still active online, on which she talked about her life.
She listed her heroes as her family and showed off favorite pictures, including three of she and Hurst, smiling.
Friends continue to post messages there.
In January, one wrote, "Life just isn't fair Katie. I miss you every day."
A note from 2008 reads, "Happy Mother's Day love. I miss you."
At work, MacDougall sometimes hinted to colleagues she sometimes had trouble with Hurst. But she didn't give them any reason to worry or intervene.
MacDougall was optimistic, believing "she was going to love him so much he would change," Dawe said.
The colleagues say they met Hurst at a party thrown by one of the company's vendors around Thanksgiving in 2006.
"He was a nice guy," McGrady said. "He seemed like a nice guy."
To honor MacDougall's memory and fight domestic violence homicide, Staples has hosted a fundraiser carwash every June since the murder. The company donates about $2,000 in annual proceeds to Voices Against Violence.
"It's such an important cause," Dawe said. "It really is."
Voices Against Violence, a nonprofit program of the South Middlesex Opportunity Council, supports domestic violence victims and survivors.
"What we know is the money that is raised and donated to Voices helps us to do all of the things that reduce the chance there's going to be another tragedy in our community," Gianakis said.
The organization provides domestic violence and rape crisis services, including 1:1 counseling, a hotline service and advocacy and support groups, as well as outreach and education efforts.
On average, Voices serves 1,500 individuals a year, houses about 100 families at its confidential shelter and answers 3,000 hotline calls.
Voices Against Violence leads a team that works on high-risk abuse cases, bringing together advocates, the police, district attorney's office and probation and parole departments trying to prevent domestic violence homicides.
"It is said to be so predictable as to be preventable," Gianakis said.
Risk warning signs include threats to kill or harm, extreme jealousy, forced sex, controlling behavior, stalking and alcohol or drug abuse.
Gianakis said the high-risk team organized after a devastating 2006 murder.
Jeremias Bins, 32, was convicted in 2008 of bludgeoning his wife Carla Souza and stepson Caique, 11, to death with a hammer in their Framingham home.
She called 911 and asked police to "please" come because she was having a problem with her husband. When officers arrived less than 2 minutes later, she and the boy were lying in pools in blood.
He was sentenced to serve two consecutive life sentences at MCI-Cedar Junction without the chance of parole.
While people may wonder why victims stay in abusive relationships, Gianakis said the real question is why batterers do what they do.
"And how can we do a better job of holding them accountable?"
Victims often stay in an abusive relationship out of fear of retaliation violence if they leave, or to keep a family intact or for financial reasons.
Sometimes they hear the threat that even if they leave, "You will never be free," Gianakis said.
When domestic homicides occur, batterers sometimes use the news to intimidate their victims.
"They will say things like 'You better be careful or the next one will be you,"' Gianakis said. "It's a fear tactic. It's a threat. It's a way to really terrorize the victim."
She stressed that the violence is never the victim's fault.
'Perpetrating violence is always a choice," she said, "and it's not the victim's fault that they were on the receiving end of that."
For more information, contact Voices Against Violence at 508-820-0834 or
http://www.smoc.org, or Jane Doe Inc. at 617-248-0922 or
http://www.janedoe.org.
For help, call Voices Against Violence's confidential sexual assault and domestic violence hotline at 508-626-8686 or 1-800-593-1125, or SafeLink, the state's 24-hour hotline at 1-877-785-2020.
(Reporter Danielle Ameden can be reached at 508-626-4416 or [email protected].)Copyright 2010 The MetroWest Daily News.