Owen family keeping daughter's memory alive while raising awareness of domestic violence

Messenger-Inquirer - 5/23/2021

May 23—Thursday was Erica Owen's birthday and her family members were placing a bench in her memory at the golf course at Ben Hawes Park.

The family has placed the purple benches across town at schools, a college, a hotel, the RiverPark Center and at Oasis Domestic Violence Shelter. The color was not chosen randomly — purple is a "symbol of courage, survival, honor and dedication to ending domestic violence," according to the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence.

The family is keeping the memory of Owen alive and also focusing on their mission of raising public awareness about domestic violence. Owen, who was 25 and a registered nurse at Owensboro Health Regional Hospital, was killed in her home on Placid Place on July 3, 2018. Her ex-boyfriend, Matthew A. Adams, 29, of Utica, was charged with murder (domestic violence), burglary and more in Owen's death and is awaiting trial in the Daviess County Detention Center.

"Days like this are tough," Rece Owen, Erica's father, said Thursday after placing the bench near the golf course's driving range. "The holidays are especially tough." But, he said, "this helps us heal a little bit, doing this.

"When it comes to the issue of domestic violence, (men) need to be aware of it," Owen said. "... My goal is to reach out to all men." Preventing domestic violence "begins with them saying 'no' and walking away."

While women also engage in domestic violence, they are much more likely to be the victims. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, one in every three women has been the victim of some form of domestic violence by an intimate partner.

Nationally, one in every seven women, and one in every 25 men, has received a physical injury as the result of intimate partner violence, and one in every 10 women has been raped by a romantic partner, the NCADV says.

But getting a woman to report domestic violence, or to try to get out of an abusive relationship, is difficult.

Fear keeps a partner from reporting, such as fear of more violence toward her, or children or pets, and even fear of having children taken away by social services. There's also financial uncertainty: the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence reports between 94% and 99% of victims have experienced economic abuse, such as the abuser controlling access to funds.

However, "it's not always fear," said Kyle Smith, victim's advocate for the Daviess County Attorney's office. "A lot of time they don't file because they don't have the knowledge" of how the system works, Smith said.

A few days before Owen's birthday, volunteers gathered at Burns Middle School to gather up large purple ribbons to place across town. Lisa Greer, Erica Owen's mother, said the volunteers would be placing about 400 purple ribbons across town in honor of Erica.

"Every year, we try to do something to raise awareness of domestic violence," Greer said. In addition to the benches and ribbons, the group has established a scholarship fund in memory of Owen at Owensboro Community & Technical College, where Owen did some of her studies.

"We've done some contributions to Oasis as well," she said. The group sold special bracelets at times in local stores to raise funds for projects.

"Erica, if you knew her, she was all about the sparkle and glam, and bracelets were her favorite piece of jewelry," Greer said.

The incident, and the group's effort to raise awareness of domestic violence, has had an impact, she said.

"I have had a few people reach out to me and say Erica's incident really opened their eyes," Greer said. "... We are giving people the confidence to make that change."

Greer said she does want to talk to people about who Erica Owen was, although people are sometimes reluctant to raise the subject out of fear of bringing back terrible memories of her death.

"We talk about her all the time, and I want to talk about her," Greer said. "She was all things bright and cheery."

One of the things that came out of Owen's death was that city police and county sheriff's deputies adopted a "lethality assessment" that officers use on domestic violence calls. The assessment is a number of questions that gauge the level of violence the victim has been subjected to in the relationship.

Law enforcement was asking questions at domestic violence calls prior to the creation of the assessment, but the process iis now more specific.

"A lot of the things on (the assessment) are things we were already doing," said Officer Andrew Boggess, public information officer for the Owensboro Police Department. "The lethality assessment was to make sure nothing fell through the cracks."

Those assessments are sent automatically to Oasis and the Victim's Assistance Office.

"The No. 1 thing (the assessment) has done is allowed officers an opportunity ... to ask questions on a domestic violence call, so they can assess if a victim is in danger and needs Oasis' assistance," said Andrea Robinson, Oasis' director.

The officer can take action right away, such as offering to transport the victim, and any children, to Oasis, or talk to the victim about filing an emergency protective order against the assailant, Boggess said.

The assessments are then looked over by counselors who will reach out to the victim if the questions show the victim needs help.

"If we are able to make contact with the victim, we will go over all the resources available," Robinson said. The change means caseworkers are proactively reaching out to people who need services, rather than waiting for a victim to call.

"It's up to the individual if they want to accept our services," Robinson said. "We have seen an increase in referrals, and that gives us an idea of how many domestic violence cases are happening because the officers will tell us."

Smith the assessments are helping people who could use services, such as filing for a domestic violence order or learning how the system will work for them.

"That's a huge piece of it, because if you can connect with them, you can ease their minds." For example, the people might worry they'll face their abuser along in court, Smith said.

"You will have a victim advocate with you" in court, Smith said. The lethality assessment "is a complete gateway and door-opener," he said.

Commonwealth's Attorney Bruce Kuegel is seeking the death penalty against Adams in Owen's death. The next time Adams is scheduled to appear in court, for a pretrial conference, is in October. Kuegel said COVID-19 hampered court activities last year and into the early months of this year, but his office has murder trials scheduled in July, September and November. Kuegel said he would likely be seeking a trial date for Adams at the October hearing.

"It's not lost" because of COVID-19, Kuegel said. "We have been having hearings and pretrial conferences all along, but COVID put a huge delay on the availability of the courts."

Daviess County Attorney Claud Porter said his office receives lethality assessments from domestic violence calls every day. Porter said the assessments have been a benefit to getting services to people in domestic violence situations, but it can be hard for a person to break away from an abuser.

"A lot of times ... the person who was assaulted wants to drop it," Porter said. "This is an intimate partner. There are financial obligations or children involved."

Owen died of asphyxiation from being strangled, according to the Daviess County Coroner's Office. The state made strangulation a separate offense in 2019. According to media accounts, the effort to make strangulation its own offense had been ongoing for years.

A 2017 report in Psychology Today says being choked by an intimate partner puts the victim "at tremendous risk of being killed by someone who has choked you before."

Porter said, "the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, and the county attorney.. we are not offering any bonds if (the case) involves a strangulation. The people charged with strangulation are sitting in jail until they have a court date."

Greer said the family plans to keep doing things to honor their daughter's memory.

"We want to keep her name out there," Greer said. "That's our goal. Our biggest fear is people forgetting."

James Mayse, 270-691-7303, jmayse@messenger-inquirer.com, Twitter: @JamesMayse

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