By Sarah Schulz
sarah.schulz@theindependent.com

At the bloody scene where Delmi Euceda Calderon lost her life, Young, the Hall County attorney, was struck by the juxtaposition of the extreme ugliness of her death and the tidiness of her apartment.

"It was obvious a child was living there and was being loved and well cared for," he said. "This one hit me harder than any I'd ever seen."

Calderon, 32, was killed by her ex-boyfriend, Jesus Flores-Garcia, in her Grand Island apartment on Feb. 20. She is survived by her 4-year-old daughter, who was not home when her mother died.

Flores-Garcia, 26, cut Calderon's throat before taking his own life, Young said.

Calderon had obtained a protection order against Flores-Garcia in July 2007. In her request for the protection order, she described how he had threatened to kill her before killing himself.

Police Capt. Robert Falldorf said Calderon and Flores-Garcia had separated around the time she filed for the protection order, and Flores-Garcia had been living in Crete for about three months.

There were also four cases pending against Flores-Garcia in Hall County three of which involved Calderon as a victim.

The cases involved stalking, terroristic threats and violating the protection order.

Young said he believed law enforcement did a good job of investigating the prior incidents and gathering enough evidence to build cases against Flores-Garcia in court. Though he noted that law enforcement did all it legally could to protect Calderon, he acknowledged that a protection order "doesn't stand up very (well) to a weapon."

The majority of the time, protection orders are effective, Young said, and he doesn't want to discourage people from requesting them. But Young wants to review this case to see if there's anything his office, or other authorities, missed.

Anytime there is a murder, there's been a failure, he said.

"He was arrested once," Young said of Flores-Garcia. "And he got the appropriate bond but then not much else. I'm looking to see if someone dropped the ball. I'm concerned, so I'm reviewing the cases."

If anything, Young believes the court needs to stop equating bond merely with showing up for hearings. He'd like to see the bond-setting process handled at the county level like it is in federal court with pretrial supervision with release.

Victim impact specialist Sarah Kowalski of the Nebraska Domestic Violence Sexual Assault Coalition in Lincoln believes the state's protection order and stalking laws are adequate. However, she said some women aren't able to reach out and request help because they are too isolated.

She added that each community needs to look at what works for it maybe it needs to re-evaluate its bond schedules or the length of time an offender is held.

"We can't respond if we don't know it's happening," she said.

Kowalski spoke Wednesday at a domestic violence conference in Kearney. She said one in four adult women is abused by her intimate partner. That battering is about power and control, and it pertains to physical, as well as mental and emotional, abuse. Batterers use threats, intimidation, emotional abuse, isolation, economic power and children against their victims. They also minimize their own behaviors and blame others for their actions, she said.

More than nine times as many women are murdered by a man they know than by a male stranger, and a woman is beaten every 15 seconds in the United States, she said.

"On average, three women are murdered by their partners every day," Kowalski said.

She added that the lethality factors include stalking, sexual violence, strangulation and protection order violations.

Nationally, 89 percent of murdered women who were physically abused had also been stalked in the 12 months prior to the murder, she said.

In 2004, an estimated 1,100 women and 350 men nationwide were killed as the result of domestic violence, she said.

Domestic violence knows no boundaries any age, sex, culture, race, religion, education, economic status, employment or martial status can be impacted, she said.

On average, it takes a woman seven tries to leave an abuser. They often stay to preserve a family unit or because they lack the means to leave. For example, their batterer may control the money. The victim may not speak English, she may fear she'll lose her children or she'll be homeless, Kowalski said.

She suggested that, if you suspect that someone you know is the victim of domestic violence, you should be honest with the person. Tell that person that you fear for her or his safety and for the safety of her or his children. Also tell that person that no one deserves to be abused, it isn't the victim's fault and that you're there for her or him, she said.

"She needs support. She can't go through this alone," Kowalski said.