Special report: Domestic violence in Mercer County

March 05--He dragged her across the floor and stomped on her repeatedly with his steel-toed boots. Her screams were muffled by the blood pooling into her throat and her hands covering her face.

He punched her. Choked her. Said he would kill her.

But as the bruises begin to fade into muted hues of purple and blue, he begs for forgiveness. He tells her he loves her. He cannot live without her.

Domestic violence is not an emerging crisis. It is a scene that happens in many homes across the country -- and in Mercer County.

A home can turn into a frightening place when there are drunken rages, controlling abuse, backhands, punishing kicks, punches or barbed words. Even the most severe endings to domestic violence stories -- the murders -- aren't rare here.

And sometimes the aggressor is not a man -- it's a woman.

A Sharon Herald investigation found 10 people have died in the last three years here. At least seven were victims. The others were killers who committed suicide. It's difficult to follow the cases because domestic violence is not categorized as a main crime for state or federal tracking. Getting the records and finding the patterns took a little digging.

The Mercer County victims were mostly women. But a review of the records shows almost half were men. A teen living with a former boyfriend was 2017's most recent casualty. But the number of people who have died from domestic violence is on the rise.

Mercer County Coroner John Libonati is not surprised by the number of domestic violence cases with male victims.

"It can happen to anyone," he said. "I truly believe that. I think your data shows it is more women, but the data also shows it can very well happen to a man."

He said women often are more likely to die in a domestic violence incident, but added that men can be vulnerable, too.

"It's interesting data," he said. "Your data shows there are no boundaries."

Since 2014, five of the victims died of gunshot wounds, one was killed with a steak knife and one was bludgeoned to death. They were killed by lovers, husbands or people living in their homes -- untimely deaths at the hands of someone they knew and -- at some point in their lives -- loved.

In 2015, 68 women and 45 men in this state died from domestic violence, according to the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV). Of the 113 deaths statewide, the youngest person killed was 18. The oldest was 95.

Firearms were the most common way abusers killed their victims, with more than half dying from gunshot wounds.

Since 2014, Hermitage, Sharpsville and Sharon were touched by fatal domestic violence incidents, and as the years pass, the deaths continue to grow.

For law enforcement, domestic violence is difficult to manage, Hermitage Police Chief Eric Jewell said. Of the seven victims murdered since 2014, four were in Hermitage.

Jewell said unlike most crimes, additional patrols, block watch programs and crime mapping can't be used to deter or to counter domestic violence because "we often don't know where or when it is occurring or who is involved due to the privacy of homes, the lack of witnesses and the psychology of victims failing to acknowledge there is a problem -- and a solution."

"Victim education, counseling and use of supporting domestic violence resources is paramount to reducing domestic violence," Jewell said. "The aggressor or abuser in a domestic relationship should also recognize a problem and seek professional and/or religious counseling and/or alcohol or drug abuse treatment if applicable."

Domestic violence is the single largest category of calls received by police agencies nationally, according to a report from the National Institute of Justice.

The problem is also underreported, the agency says.

Jewell said domestic violence victims rarely seek out law enforcement as a first line of defense, and fear prevents them from reporting assaults or abuse to police.

It's not only fear of reprisals from the abusive partner that creates hesitation. Victims are also afraid of being lost in, or let down by, the system.

Only a fraction of the domestic abuse that occurs in a relationship is ever reported, according to the National Institute of Justice. An equally troubling statistic -- a large portion of the abused victims disagree with the evidence documented by police when the crime occurs.

Researchers compared hundreds of police reports at four sites in three different states and found that a third of the victims reported "no assault," contradicting the findings of law enforcement.

Ironically, the alleged abusers tended to admit an assault had occurred, but downplayed the severity of the crime when compared to the victims, the report states.

Part of the problem when it comes to domestic violence is people tend to treat it differently than other acts of violence, Mercer County Assistant District Attorney David Wenger said.

He said in cases of domestic violence people often want to know why the victim did not leave the abuser.

"That's not the question you ask," Wenger said. "It's, 'Why did he do it?' You don't blame the victim for the abuse that they took."

Wenger said in domestic violence and sexual assault cases, society often blames victims.

"We don't blame a victim when someone breaks into his house and wants to steal his guns," Wenger said. "But domestic violence and sexual assaults, we want to blame the victim. I don't know the reason why."

He said victims of domestic violence have already questioned themselves enough, and many stay in the relationship long after it becomes unhealthy.

Wenger said domestic violence victims often become victims of the system when they tell their stories because of the questions police are required to ask, and the way cases are tried in the legal system. He said his office is trying to change all that by creating programs that are victim-focused and getting victims the help they need.

"It doesn't matter why she stayed," Wenger said. "No one has the right to do this to another person."

Like T.L. Miller on Facebook, follow her @TL_Miiller or email her at tmiller@sharonherald.com.

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