Summary

Around the same time that Michelle and her children were murdered, a woman named Dorothy Giunta-Cotter had fled to a shelter, looking to escape her abusive husband William. She sought help from a domestic violence advocate named Kelly Dunne but refused to stay in a shelter. Dunne helped Dorothy get a restraining order against her husband, but he violated it and attacked her just ten days after she moved back into her home. An arrest warrant was issued but William turned himself in and bailed himself out within minutes. Communication gaps between the police, domestic violence advocates, the judiciary, and Dorothy meant that the court did not know about William's history of violence or the threat he posed to his wife. Five days after bailing himself out, William murdered Dorothy. Dorothy's death taught Dunne that the current...