BY SARAH STEPHENS, OWNER/EDITOR
For the second time this year in Prattville, suspected domestic violence has taken the life of a person, Prattville Chief Mark Thompson confirmed.
The first occurred earlier this year in Candle Stick Park, where a woman allegedly shot and killed a man.
This morning around 9:45 a.m. on Cosby Court a woman was stabbed to death.
Lee Andrew Ephraim, 55, of Elmore, is accused of causing that death at the residence. He has been charged with Murder/Domestic Violence and is in the Autauga County Jail under a $250,000 bond. The name of the victim has not been released, pending notification of next of kin. The incident is still under investigation.
Ephriam left the scene of the homicide but was located a short time later in Millbrook and taken into custody Prattville Chief Mark Thompson said.
Chief Thompson said there were other people in the home at the time of the death.
“I want to thank the Millbrook Police Department for their assistance this morning,” Thompson said.
Domestic violence is a problem that most law enforcement departments in our area deal with almost daily. Last year was extremely violent in that there were six domestic violence incidents that ended in murder in our area. One was in Prattville, two in the Redland area, one in Wetumpka, and two in Tallassee. All of the victims were women in those cases.
If you are in danger related to a domestic violence situation, help is available. Call 911, Alabama’s Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-650-6522, or the U.S. National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 and TTY 1-800-787-3224.
Visit this link to find shelters in Alabama: https://www.domesticshelters.org/help/al
The following information is from domesticshelters.org.
Alarming statistics indicate that, as you read this short sentence, a woman has become the victim of assault. According to the Partnership Against Domestic Violence, every 9 seconds, another woman in the U.S. is beaten.
Every nine seconds.
It’s a sobering reality for one in four women in the U.S. will experience domestic violence in their lifetime, most frequently by someone they know. Female victims most commonly first experience domestic violence between the ages of 18-24 (38.6%), followed by age 11-17 (22.4%), age 35-44 (6.8%) and age 45+ (2.5%). Almost one out of five or 16.3% of murder victims in the U.S. were killed by an intimate partner; women account for two out of three murder victims killed by an intimate partner.
Violence against women occurs predominantly behind closed doors at home with most cases having never been reported to police. But that doesn’t mean the problem isn’t visible and doesn’t spill into future generations. Domestic violence is the third leading cause of homelessness among families with 50% of all women who are homeless reporting that domestic violence was the immediate cause of their homelessness, according to The National Center on Family Homelessness.
The risk of perpetrating intimate partner violence as an adult is two times greater for those who were abused or witnessed their mother being abused during their own childhood. Likewise, the risk of becoming a victim of domestic violence as a teen or adult is greatly increased when young people are raised in households where abuse is present.
While domestic violence happens to people in all walks of life regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, education, profession or socioeconomic status, there are statistical predictive indicators of domestic violence, probably the most important being exposure to it as a child.
3.3 Million: Estimated number of children in the U.S. each year that witness violence against their mother or female caretaker by a family member.
40-60: Percentage of men who abuse women who also abuse children.
1 in 5: Number of teenage girls who said they have been in a relationship where the boyfriend threatened violence or self-harm if a breakup was to occur.
85: Percentage of domestic violence victims who are women.
175,000: Number of workdays American employees miss each year on account of domestic violence.
40-70: Percentage of female murder victims in the U.S. who were killed by their husbands or boyfriends, often within an ongoing abusive relationship.
