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Jodi Rave: Series on violence against Native women
Tuesday, September 26, 2006

"Julia Hawkins' boyfriend beat her for at least two years before slitting her throat and killing her.

Yellow police tape marked the murder-suicide scene at Hawkins' home in Missoula when Cindy Umphrey arrived to identify her 36-year-old sister.

Two years later, in 1995, her 17-year-old niece, Tambi Weinberger, also died at the hands of a boyfriend.

“He got jealous over her and started beating her,” Umphrey said. “He kicked her in the head so many times, the whole right and left sides of her head were just like mush.”

If a person kills an intimate partner in a fit of rage, it's called murder.

But for too long, such deaths were attributed to a “crime of passion,” said Vickie Amundson, president of Montana's Silent Witness Initiative.

“They're getting over that one.”

Amundson belongs to a larger network, the Silent Witness National Initiative, organized 15 years ago to create awareness of domestic violence homicides."

Get the Story:
Jodi Rave: Domestic violence: Silhouettes stand up for homicide victims (The Missoulian 9/26)

Relevant Links:
Jodi Rave - http://www.missoulian.com/jodirave

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