Domestic Violence Headline News for the Week of Feb. 10, 2025

Sean Parnell, Accused of Strangling Ex-Wife, Hired as Pentagon’s Top Spokesperson

In an unfortunate case of downplaying the severity of strangulation, one of the top indicators of domestic violence homicide, former U.S. Senate candidate Sean Parnell from Pennsylvania was just tapped to be the Pentagon’s top spokesperson. Parnell was hired by Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was also accused of being abusive toward his second wife, Samantha Hegseth.

Parnell’s ex-wife, Laurie Snell, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that Parnell strangled her during their divorce proceedings in 2021. 

“He tried to choke me out on a couch, and I literally had to bite him [to get free]. “He was strangling me,” Snell testified. Parnell denies the allegations.

One of the most difficult aspects of identifying strangulation as an abusive tactic is that it often doesn’t cause visible injuries at the time of the assault. Based on the published research of Gael Strack, CEO of the Alliance for HOPE International, in at least half of all cases, there are no marks on the victim right after the assault.

“Serious consequences can happen in only mere seconds after being strangled,” says Strack. “Preventing air and blood flow by compressing one’s throat can cause swelling and closure of the airway, or delayed stroke or cardiac arrest.” 

Snell also alleges Parnell abused their children. The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges says that 30 to 60 percent of children living in homes where domestic violence is present are direct victims abuse themselves. For more information on how domestic violence affects kids, read “10 Risks of Domestic Abusers as Parents.”
Source: The Keystone

Murder-Suicides Rage on Across U.S.

We couldn’t possibly cover them all if we wanted to, but here’s a round-up of just a few of the murder-suicides that happened in the past week. According to renowned domestic violence expert, researcher and author Jacquelyn Campbell, PhD., somewhere around 38 to 40 percent of abusers who murder their partners kill themselves afterwards.

Seward, Neb. Just before midnight on Saturday, 54-year-old Casey Kindt shot his ex-fiancé, Jamie Hagen, 36, multiple times in her home, killing her. He then attempted to fatally shoot himself, but his gunshot wound was not fatal. Officers say a minor in the home called 911 for help.

Kindt had made bail just the day prior after being arrested for contacting Hagen despite a protection order she had in place. Last December, Hagen filed for the order of protection after Kindt was charged with third-degree domestic assault, child abuse and making terroristic threats. 

A National Institutes of Justice study found that about half of orders are violated in some way. While many survivors have been harmed or killed after filing orders of protection, these orders did not cause the violence. Instead, survivors filed for them because an abuser’s violence was already escalating. Read more about the factors that place survivors at the greatest risk of homicide in “Will I Be More or Less Safe if I File for a Restraining Order?”

“They were going to get married. They bought a house together,” Charles Hagen, Jamie’s father, tells the local news station. “But things just started shifting a different way and he started getting aggressive, I guess. I don’t know a hundred percent of the story and some of the hidden things, and some of the other things are starting to come out now.”

One survivor shared with DomesticShelters.org the reasons why she didn’t disclose the abuse she was suffering. 

 “Because when you’re in the thick of things, in the middle of a hell that you’re convinced is of your own making, you can’t see anything clearly. Fear and shame consume you—they’re your constant companions. And when you look at your family and friends, you often can only see judgment and derision.” Read Janice Fuller-Roberts’ entire essay here: “This Is Why I Didn’t Tell You He Was Beating Me.”

Lafayette, La. On Sunday evening, Kevin Brown, 60, and his wife Shentell Brown, 47, were driving in a SUV together when police say there was a verbal altercation. Kevin, the passenger in the car, took out a gun and shot Shentell, who was driving the vehicle, multiple times. Brown then shot himself. He later died at the hospital. The couple’s two children were in the back of the SUV at the time. One child flagged down a passing driver for help, while the other child, upon exiting the car, was struck by a passing vehicle and sustained minor injuries. Shentell worked as a public defender and assistant district attorney in St. Martin Parish. Coworkers say she was instrumental in the juvenile court system.

That same day in Lafayette, Wikeem Smith, 20, shot and killed his 21-year-old girlfriend, Keiara Ledet. Investigators say a domestic dispute led to the shooting. A domestic dispute is a term police often use to describe an argument between two people who live under the same roof that’s gotten out of control and has triggered someone to call the police, though sometimes it can be used interchangeably with a domestic assault, where violence is used.

Snellville, Ga. On Monday, police say they found a man and woman in a home, dead from gunshot wounds. Officials say the shooting arose from a domestic dispute and believed it to be a murder-suicide. The only other detail officials have released is that the couple was in their 60s. 

Brooklyn, NY. On Tuesday, a 41-year-old man killed his 32-year-old girlfriend before turning the gun on himself. This happened outside a home around 7:30 a.m. as parents in the neighborhood were taking their kids to school. A man who knew the shooter was in shock by what transpired. “He’s not a bad guy. I don’t know what brought this out of him,” he told the local news station. 

Abusers are often described by survivors and others around them as “charming,” which is often a mask they wear in public so that if abuse allegations are lodged against them, it will be much harder for them to be believed. Read more at “When Abusers Turn on the Charm.”

More intimate partner homicides are committed with guns than by all other weapons combined. According to Everytown.org, an anti-gun violence organization, 70 women are shot and killed by a partner every month, and 4.5 million women in the United States have been threatened by an intimate partner with a gun. Additionally, a domestic violence survivor is five times more likely to be killed by an abuser when there’s access to a firearm.
Sources: Live5 WCSC, Fox5 Atlanta, NBC4 New York, KADN News 15

Black-Owned Champagne Brand Gives Back to Domestic Violence Organizations

Samantha Danielle grew up with childhood domestic violence and knows the impact one supportive person can have in helping a survivor escape. The Chicago resident is now giving back to domestic violence organizations through her new champagne company, LOVELUVV. 

“As much as I love love, love should not hurt,” says Danielle. “I grew up witnessing violence in the home. And my mom had someone help her get out of the situation…. So I want to be that person for people.”

The estimated number of children who are exposed to violence at home, sometimes called childhood domestic violence or CDV, ranges from 3.3 million up to 10 million, a concerningly large range. CDV can lead to a range of health and social problems in adulthood (find your Adverse Childhood Experiences score here), including depression, drug and alcohol misuse and an increased risk of becoming a victim of abuse or an abusive partner later on in life. 

However, one study showed that of 400 extraordinarily high achievers, 75 percent of them had survived critical childhood challenges, which speaks to the strength survivors can have if supported after abuse.

Beyond starting your own champagne company, there are many ways survivors can give back, which in turn, may help them in their healing process. Read “Using Your Survivor Experience to Help Others” for more information. 
Source: ABC7