Family Law

One day after a domestic violence murder in South Augusta, the Violence Policy Center has unflattering statistics for our area.

The center says South Carolina is number six, and Georgia is number eight in the country for the number of women murdered by men.

Domestic violence counselors are calling on the community for help.

Yellow police tape surrounded the home where investigators say Calvin Foster Senior shot his wife, Daphne, five times Tuesday morning - killing her in a fit of rage.

It's logged as another statistic downtown, but one of rising concern to domestic violence counselors, like Rae Brammer who's disappointed with what she calls "lackluster efforts" to stop the problem.

"What are we telling people," Brammer asks, "that we can look the other way and it's not our problem? I think Augusta's looked the other way too long."

Maggie Tucker agrees. As Assistant Director of a shelter for domestic violence victims, she's worried about the increasing number of people who don't act when they should.

"Always a friend knew," she says of past victims who died at the hands of their domestic attacker. "There was some person that knew. So I think it's every body's responsibility."

But both Brammer and Tucker agree - helping a victim leave a bad situation is both difficult and dangerous.

"That's when the batterer will go into a rage," Tucker admits. "That's when a lot of women are killed - after they leave."

Still, they say, reporting domestic problems is the only way to stop a cycle of violence that Brammer says is passed from one generation to the next.

"If you care about children and if you care about the next generation, it's your problem."

In the report, 90 women were murdered in Georgia in domestic incidents. 90% of them knew their killer.

South Carolina saw 47 women murdered by men. 91% were killed by someone they knew.

Rankings are based on murders per 100,000 people. Georgia's population is larger than South Carolina's. That's why South Carolina is ranked higher.

SOURCE: NBCAugusta.com in a story by Joshua Quinn