Michelle Belisle's Muder: Could It Have Neen Prevented?

The relatives of Michelle Belisle are just tonight coming to terms with the events that led to the murder of this 34 year old wife and mother. She was stabbed to death by her ex-husband 39 year old Windell "mouse" Belisle at the Price Barracks military base yesterday - where both of them were civilian employees. The three children she shared with him have been taken into the custody of the step grandfather. But the telling events that led to the murder - speak volumes about how individuals and the system deal with spousal abuse. The two had been together for 18 years, married for 8 of those years - but for the past three years - she had been separated from him. In that time, the pattern of abuse became a very public matter - where he had threatened her publicly at Price Barracks - and was subsequently warned by BDF administrators to stop or lose his job. But, he didn't and yesterday, he walked the thousand feet from his post at the automotive shed to hers at the canteen and stabbed her 22 times in front of several eyewitnesses. While the terrible end could not have been foretold, with proper intervention, could it have been prevented? That's the kind of question that domestic counselors grapple with every day - but now finally they're putting some science into mapping this difficult emotional terrain. The Women's Department which counsels victims of abuse is compiling a database of abuse cases which will give counselors a broad body of empirical evidence to study. Department director Anita Zetina today discussed this new development and the broader social disorder which breeds abusive environments:
Anita Zetina, Director, Department of Women's Affairs
"We are recording cases, that is why we can tell you now that 90% of the cases are reported by women. We can also tell you that the majority of cases reported are in common law unions. We can also tell you that the majority of the reports coming to us are between the ages of 20 and 39 years. These are information that we didn't have before, but because we have recognized that domestic violence is a real problem in our society, we have worked towards putting the things in place. Violence is a learned behavior and it will never go away unless you seek help. And violence will never diminish it will always escalate so it will start with verbal abuse it will then go to a slap, it will then go to a broken hand, and then it will end up in sometimes murder as we have seen in not only this recent case but a number of cases in the past. Domestic violence is affected by many factors, there are several, several reasons why a man or a woman will not leave an abusive situation - and so we cannot sit here and criticize why: "well she like it, that's why she stays," or "he like it that's why he stays." I mean it's difficult, because a lot of times children are involved and it's a battle between the two and the children being affected emotionally, psychologically. But I think that whenever women feel that it is getting to a point where it is getting too dangerous they should come out and seek help. Don't wait untill it gets to the point whre it could end in death. You know the minute you feel that abuse, verbal abuse starting, punching and so on you need to put a stop to it; you need to seek help because it's not going to go away."
Tomorrow, we'll visit with the Family Violence Unit of the Police Department to find out what work it has been doing in this area.