Court TV did a poll last night: Did fiance kill (runaway bride) 93%...

[Proud2BAmurkin]

said he did.

It was phrased something like did husband have anything to do with fiance disappearance. Speculation all night about the fiance being wary of a POLICE LIE DETECTOR test.

Police are always right, therefore fiance killed her.

Fucking scum.

[Quixote1818]

1. The one that just showed up in Albuquerque, New Mexico? nt

[Bluebear]

2. Nancy Grace is some pissed off today

A good eight months of hopping mad indignation she was planning is right down the drain.

[Career Prole]

6. LOL!

Good! "Lock and load" this, Grace!

The ol' presumption of innocence goes right down the crapper with "legal experts" like her all over the tube regularly peein' in the juror pool.

[Jack Rabbit]

9. Nancy Grace is the worst thing I've seen on the boob tube in a long time

This is a legal correspondent? She acts like a sportscaster. With her delivery style, she should be on ESPN giving scores and injury reports. Then, raising her voice to her tradmakrk crescendo, she tells us how it will effect the team's prospects to win a division title.

She missed her calling.

[scarlett1]

12. The lawyers I know HATE Nancy Grace

Even the Prosecutors. She and Gloria Allred are hated by other lawyers.

[etherealtruth]

3. Frightening

[Submariner]

4. I'm looking forward to her explanation

for her inbred racism that made her accuse a Hispanic man for abducting her. That should be priceless. Her best bet is to join a cloistered convent for the next 50 years and never be seen again. She is the ultimate in white trash and should be tagged with the bill for all the money spent looking for this twit.

[rodeodance]

5. I hope this is lesson to the media for propagating these rumors!!

[3waygeek]

24. I'm not so sure it was consciously racist

There's been a large influx of Hispanics into Duluth in the last decade; I've lived here for about 12 years now (about 1/2 mile from the Mason-Wilbanks house), and I first noticed the new arrivals 6-7 years ago, when they were concentrated in one part of town. In the last 2-3 years, they've spread out a bit as they've worked their way up the ladder and are able to afford better housing.

I'd go so far as to say that they're the most visible minority here now. So when she made up the abduction story and needed someone to blame, she probably went with the first minority group she could think of, even though she may not have any perceptible bias against them (not that I know her thoughts, as I've never met her).

Also, there's a gathering point for Hispanic day laborers about 100 yards from the house she & her fiance shared -- she'd almost certainly would have seen or heard them every morning as she left for work.

[Jacobin]

7. And everyone wonders why so many innocent people are on death row

Prosecutors are scumbags, people love to jump to conclusions,

[imenja]

8. statistically, husbands and boyfriends are most likely killers

Murder by a partner is the number one cause of death of pregnant women in particular, though there is no indication this woman is pregnant.

It makes sense that's what people thought. It the vast majority of cases that is exactly what happens.

[Shell Beau]

10. I agree.

A lot of times when a woman is murdered, it is usually by her husband or boyfriend. But did I hear she was a runaway bride? If so, the husband already was basically a murderer in the eyes of the public. That must suck for him. His future wife ran away and he was thought to have killed her.

[imenja]

11. the situation was tragic for the fiance

public sympathy has now move to him

[scarlett1]

14. Too bad she just didn't call him from the road and say

Hey I can't go through with this big wedding right now. Let's just elope in Vegas.

[imenja]

15. she obviously doesn't want to marry him

or she would never have pulled something like this. That is not how you treat someone you love.

[Shell Beau]

18. Really!

What is wrong with people today. A Dear John letter would have been better. WTF?

[Shell Beau]

16. The way the

media lives and breathes these type of occurrences, people now jump to conclusions. With the Scott Peterson fiasco, and the other pregnant murdered woman, Lori (forgot last name), people automatically assume the husband did it when we don't even know what the "it" is. Case in point.

[MountainLaurel]

21. Nationwide, it's about 1 out of 4

In some states, if a woman is murdered, the chance that it's a current or former partner is about 90 percent.

[imenja]

22. wow, which states?

and any idea of what explains the variation?

[MountainLaurel]

26. West Virginia is up there

As is Vermont (Ms. Magazine did a feature a few years ago about a woman there who service to DV victims revolved around driving them to safety, which is why I recall that its stat was about 80 percent of women were killed by a partner). Those are two that I know of directly.

A few factors are involved. A major issue is the isolation -- physical, emotional, and otherwise -- of victims. If you've got one car for the family in an area with no public transportation, and your husband drives the vehicle to work, and it's 10 miles to the next town over, how do you leave? In the case of the VT woman I mention above, that was the situation she faced in the rural mountains, and the reason why she does what she does for others today. Also, abusers tend to isolate women from their families and friends, so the victim may not have a support system nearby. Many, many places in this country have no battered spouses' shelters, no hotlines, no services to help.

And in some areas, the issue is cultural. Unfortunately, even if she does get out once, religion and socialization might tell a woman that even if he beats her, that's his right as a husband and her job to take it, that it really wasn't that bad, that he wouldn't have hit her without a good reason, and that leaving him is a sin. Many family members will send a victim back to her abuser, telling her she made her bed by marrying him, now she has to lie in it. Police might say the same (they did to a 17-year-old friend of mine with bruises in the shape of handprints on her neck).

Socialization is a huge issue in other ways. Men who grow up believing that women are inferior and that wives are there to be subservient are more likely to be control freaks and think it's acceptable, and even their responsibility, to hit their spouse. If law enforcement sees spousal abuse as a family matter, or there's a good ol' boy attitude, the abuser will know he can get away with it. Or if the couple are "pillars of the community" there's the idea that he would never hit his wife -- that only happens on the wrong side of the tracks.

A huge issue is financial. Domestic abusers actively work to make their victims dependent on them for money, especially if there are children. Often it's part of the isolation -- a woman has a child and stops working, at which point her spouse controls all the funds, forcing the wife to beg for money if groceries, diapers, or even medication are needed. There's no chance for her to save a little away, or even to control what is available. And, the cycle of abuse is such that the abuser poisons the victim's mind against herself, repeatedly telling her that she is stupid and useless, and would never survive without him. And if a woman is raised to believe that she's nothing without a man, that just reinforces his message.

In fact, the Justice Department directly attributes the decline in the number of women (as a percentage of the total population) murdered by their spouses over the past 50 years to the widespread entrance of women into the workforce.

These are just a few of the reasons for the geographic disparities
That said, a little known fact is that a woman is MORE likely to be killed in the weeks after leaving an abuser.

If you're interested in more info, try this, the Justice Department's research arm.

[imenja]

27. very interesting

Thanks for the info and link.

[bettyellen]

13. because kidnapping is so rare-- and killing your girl-friend/ spouse.....

is all too fucking common as in #1 reason for violent death among women.

[biscotti]

17. Nancy Grace Syndrome

Seems to spread quickly.

[DURHAM D]

19. Even Keith O. was making fun of her last night - the way she looks-

her eyes. Said she looked like she was getting ready to do something ... Anyway, can't believe someone didn't step up and tell him and all the a-holes that she appears to have Graves disease. It is a thyroid condition - Barbara Bush has it. Poppy has it to only not so bad. Junior will likely get it - just means their thyroid is working overtime.

[chookie]

23. Hooray! You identified her problem!

I guessed it was some kind of endocrinal disorder -- thyroid, but it could well be Graves.

I thought I was the only person on earth to think this. I can see people on DU attributing her appearance to mental illness, if they have no medical expertise and in this highly informal public forum, but I was dumbfounded to hear the "experts" on CNN describe her appearance as such. How could they be so ignorant of physical origins of this kind of appearance? No excuse.

[MileHiStealth]

25. Maybe Frist could tell us for sure ?

Send him a video ...

[peacetalksforall]

20. I think it would be in order to call her and her employer non-American.

And their advertisors, if they have any.

Hey Grace and bosses - it's innocent until proven guilty. What's in it for you to call the guilty until proven innocent?

How much does sheand they get paid to destruct the system?

She must work for the Fed Society.

[jbnow]

28. I hate those polls

I remember one about Kolbe Bryant within days of the accusation coming out. So we should have and voice our opinion when we know nothing?

A friend came over yesterday and the TV was on, showing this story. He asked what it was and I told him I hoped it was a runaway bride story.

She really made a mistake scaring everyone that way, but I am glad she is alive.

I was never sure of the big deal about the lie detector. He agreed as long as it was taped and so on. Big deal. Most lawyers would want clients to be cautious.

Keith O was commenting on her expression (those eyes) last night, wondering if she had any history of unusual behavior.