Each time Dawn Novak hears about another woman killed at the hands of a domestic partner, she is disturbed anew by a sentiment far too commonly expressed in the aftermath. âAlways, what angers me a great deal is when I hear the sound bites of neighbours saying, âOh, who would have known? He was such a nice man.ââNice men âdonât murder their family,â Novak said. And there are always red flags that were missed. âNo domestic homicide just happens,â she said. This week, Novak will deliver the opening speech at a Toronto police conference on domestic homicides â part of the federal governmentâs Victims and Survivors of Crime Week. Itâs a topic that event organizer Det. Ann-Marie Tupling says is too often âpushed asideâ despite its tragic prevalence. In giving the talk, Novak feels she is âreturning to ground zero.â Twelve years ago this month, her daughter Natalie, a 20-year-old from Bracebridge, was killed by her abuser and former boyfriend in her Toronto apartment.Natalie, who was in Ryerson Universityâs hospitality and tourism management program, was staying in the city to work over the summer.Just before 3:30 a.m. on May 15, 2006, screams were heard coming from Novakâs bedroom in a Chinatown home she rented with five other students. Summoned by multiple 911 calls, police and paramedics arrived to find she had been repeatedly stabbed and her throat slit in what one homicide cop described as a âvicious attack.âIn 2009, Novakâs ex-boyfriend, Arssei Hindessa, was convicted of second-degree murder. Sentencing him to 18 years in prison before parole eligibility, Justice Anne Molloy called the murder âextreme butchery,â noting it had âelements of planning and deliberationâ that edged on first-degree murder.As research has repeatedly shown, there are typically many signs that put a domestic violence victim at a high risk of ...
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