Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Article: String of domestic killings across Mountain Empire leaves questions

HONAKER, Va. --
Abuse Alternatives in Bristol operates a 24-hour hotline for victims of domestic violence. The number is (423) 764-ABUSE.



Sunday’s shootings – which left a woman, her teenage daughter and the gunman dead in this small Russell County town – are the latest in a six-month string of domestic killings across the region. Since November, nearly a dozen people have died in explosive, household squabbles – leaving authorities to wonder if there’s any way to stop it.

In some cases, there’s been some warning: exchanged emergency protective orders or prior visits from police.

William Anthony Blackburn walked out onto his front porch on Easter Sunday afternoon, shot his stepdaughter, who was sitting on the porch swing, then went inside, shot his wife and turned the gun to his own head, authorities said.

Five years earlier, the Blackburns’ file began in Russell County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. In July 2006, Tina Denise Blackburn was charged with assaulting her husband. According to court records, “it was found that [Tina Blackburn] did strike him in the mouth, leaving a small cut on his upper lip.” The next day, William Anthony Blackburn took out an emergency protective order against his wife, though the charges were dismissed a few days later.

That November, Tina Blackburn took out an emergency protective order against her husband. No charges were filed and the order expired after 72 hours. She never petitioned the court for a permanent protective order. Two years later, she again got an emergency protective order against her husband and, again, no charges were filed and the order expired after three days.

According to the Virginia Department of Health, “family and intimate partner violence” accounts for a third of all homicides in the state.

In November 2010, a Buchanan County, Va., man named Alvin Sheppard shot and killed his grandchild’s father, 29-year-old John Mays, and Mays’ mother, Sandra Keene. He was not drunk or on drugs; he had no criminal record or history of mental illness. They’d been in and out of court over custody of the child. Just after the shooting, Sheppard called the Sheriff’s Office, told them what he’d done, then shot himself in the head.

Just days later, 61-year-old Jane “Dixie” Waters Boyles was kidnapped, then killed by her ex-boyfriend, Johnny Anthony Catanzaro. Boyles had a series of protective orders against Catanzaro and the Abingdon Police Department had been working with her for years, trying to coax her out of the violent relationship.

One week after the final protective order against him, Catanzaro showed up at her elderly parents’ home in Chilhowie, Va., tied them up and held them captive for more than seven hours. He forced them to call Boyles and lure her to their house, where he ambushed her, tied her up and packed her into his SUV. As police tailed them through Washington County, Catanzaro shot Boyles then himself.

The next month, in December, a 29-year-old woman was stabbed with a 6-inch boning knife in her Glade Spring, Va., home. She narrowly survived. Her estranged husband, Johnny Counts, is awaiting trial on charges of aggravated malicious wounding and breaking and entering. Police said they’d been to the couple’s house for several domestic fights in the past.

Then the day after Christmas, 26-year-old Chassen R. Boies found out that his 22-year-old wife was having an affair and shot her in the face. He drove to the Police Department, his hands still covered in blood, and confessed to the killing. The family was new in town and police had never even heard of them. He’d lost his job in Florida, then they lost their house and moved to Abingdon, Va., to be near her family. Boies hanged himself in his jail cell two weeks ago, leaving behind a 1-year-old daughter.

In January, Eric D. Dean was stabbed to death in his Sullivan County, Tenn., home. Authorities say that he and his wife, Mary Jo Dean, were fighting and she stabbed him once in the chest with a kitchen knife. She has not been charged.

Kathy Johnson, executive director of Abuse Alternatives, said the recent climb in deadly domestic incidents is alarming.

Johnson blames, in part, the spiraling economy and high rates of unemployment. Stress drives volatile, controlling people closer to the brink, she said.

“People feel desperate and they don’t know what to do,” she said. “They’re losing control of everything.”

For someone already prone to violence, she said, powerlessness can be a lethal emotion.

Bristol and Washington County, Va., authorities recently began a Domestic Violence Fatality Review team, one of 15 panels across the state charged with analyzing a case that ended with someone’s death, to determine if anything could have been done to prevent it.

The meetings between police, prosecutors and non-profit directors are confidential, authorities won’t say what case they’ve chosen to review, but the intention is to critique the agencies involved to identify gaps in services and improve the community’s response to domestic violence.

Johnson suggested that people just walk away when things start getting heated – go to a friend or relative’s house until the situation cools down.

Abuse Alternative operates emergency shelters and a 24-hour hotline at (423) 764-ABUSE.

“You can just get some rest, help exploring options,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be a forever thing.”

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