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Lantern Project: Since October 2013, Hope House has joined with other domestic violence programs around the state by implementing the Lantern Project. For our part in this statewide project, we added to the lamppost in front of Hope House a purple wreath. We will turn on the light for a week every time there is a death related to domestic violence in Wisconsin. We will post information online about the person(s) that was killed. If you drive by our building and see our lamppost on, please reflect on the deadly impact that domestic violence has on our communities. We know the list of stories we post here is incomplete. We strive to learn about and share these stories but know that there are some that we and the media miss. If you see a news story of a death in WI related to domestic violence and don't see it posted here, please feel free to let us know about it here. Thank you. May 1st, 2020: Laura M. McMillan, Age 56 A couple’s death on Washington Road in the Township of Ahnapee north of Algoma has been initially considered a murder-suicide by the Kewaunee County Sheriff’s Department. According to the news release on Monday evening, 71-year-old Dennis A. McMillan apparently shot Laura McMillan, 56, multiple times at their home before turning the gun on himself. The Kewaunee County Sheriff’s Department was called to the residence for a welfare check last Friday. Upon arriving at the home, sheriff deputies observed two bodies on the floor through a window after no one came to the door. The incident remains under investigation with the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation assisting the Kewaunee County Sheriff’s Department. No other details are available at this time. May 4th, 2020: unnamed man and woman Brown County sheriff’s deputies are investigating the deaths of two people in Allouez as a murder-suicide. Investigators say they were called to the 3200 block of S. Webster Ave. just after 4:30 p.m. Monday to check on the people who lived there. The caller reported seeing what appeared to be blood and said the doors were locked. Deputies went into the house and found a male and female dead. After they got a warrant, deputies collected evidence and documented the scene. They cleared the scene Tuesday morning. Initial investigation points to a murder-suicide, deputies say. Autopsies are scheduled for Tuesday. Names of the people involved have not been released. The Brown County Sheriff’s Office says the public is not in danger and no suspects are being sought.  May 5th, 2020: Cathy King, Age 48 Shot to death outside her workplace by a persistent ex-boyfriend, Cathy King wasn’t supposed to leave the Earth this way. She had people to care for: her three children, two grandchildren and a host of friends and extended family members. Checking up on loved ones was her specialty. “Her heart was not a normal size. It was huge,” niece Taee Oliver said Wednesday at a vigil outside a north side Walgreens, where police say a 51-year-old man shot and killed King, 48, Tuesday afternoon. “This wasn’t supposed to happen, not to her,” Oliver said. King was a pharmacy technician at the store, 2727 W. North Ave., her family said. Walgreens employees, friends and family members gathered Wednesday evening in the store parking lot to release balloons and pay their respects. “We love you Ms. Cathy,” read a hand-lettered sign tacked above a small memorial arranged along the store’s brick wall. Pasted to the sign was a selfie: King with her fellow pharmacy employees, smiling behind masks. During a global pandemic, King was an essential worker. She continued to serve the sick in a neighborhood hit hard by the coronavirus, her family said. “You can see that she touched a lot of hearts,” cousin Ragen Stowers said, looking out at the gathered crowd of about 40. Stowers described King as “free-hearted,” and other family members echoed the sentiment. She gave her love to everyone and helped anyone who needed it, Oliver said. “It don’t get no better than her as an aunt, as a mom, as a grandma, as a sister,” Oliver said. “Whatever it was, she was the best at it.” A day after King’s death, it’s hard for her sister Sylvia Washington to talk about the woman she’s known for 48 years. “Cathy was a very good, sweet lady,” Washington said. The two sisters enjoyed a calm Tuesday morning together, drinking coffee, watching TV and chatting. Washington saw her off to work in the early afternoon. She had no idea King would never return. Cathy and the man who shot her had not been in a relationship for months, Washington said. “He was not understanding that. No means no. Move on means move on,” she said. A memorial is set up outside the Walgreens store for worker Cathy King, who was shot and killed Tuesday outside the store. The suspect in the homicide had been in a relationship with King, police said. In the crowd of people who loved King were two women who didn’t know her personally: Laverne Badger and Natalie Hayden. They’re domestic violence survivors and advocates who work to support women after abuse. The recent slew of domestic violence cases in Milwaukee is discouraging, Badger said. “Because it happens so often it almost feels like, are we doing enough? And what we are doing — is it really making an impact?” she said. A sense of urgency around domestic violence is “long overdue,” said Reggie Moore, director of the Office of Violence Prevention. Prompted by recent cases, advocates in Milwaukee are taking new steps toward addressing it, he said. And in the fight against domestic violence, it’s important to remember it’s not just a women’s issue, Moore said. “This is a community issue, and the burden of addressing this issue is on men,” he said. “Violence against women and girls is unacceptable. And until more men step up and adhere to that message and share that message and hold each other accountable to that message, this is going to continue,” Moore said. Change didn’t come soon enough for King. Among the flower bouquets and candles surrounding a framed photo of King were two “Happy Mother’s Day” balloons. King died five days short of the holiday. For those who knew her, the day holds a more painful meaning this year. They’ll be without King, a woman who spread motherly love everywhere she went. May 6th, 2020: Man dies from self-inflicted gunshot wound
A man in his 30s died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a parking lot near Green Bay Road and Brown Deer Road in Brown Deer Wednesday morning, May 6 following a police pursuit. Death investigation underway near Green Bay Road and Deerwood Drive in Brown Deer Brown Deer police initiated a “high-risk stop” of a suspect of a domestic violence incident. They say the man drove from the scene at a home in Brown Deer at about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. Officials say the man died by his own hand with a gun in parking lot of a shopping center north of Brown Deer Road on N. Green Bay Road, according to Brown Deer Police Community Outreach Officer Fernando Santiago. “Officers spotted the vehicle driving away from the location of the incident, they initiated a pursuit, very short pursuit, the vehicle ended up stopping near North Deerwood Drive and Green Bay Road,” Santiago said. Dealing with more domestic violence calls than usual… “We’re trying to do our job to make sure people are aware that extended periods at home create, obviously, other challenges between family members — and that there is some things they could do. There’s resources out there,” Santiago said. Investigators from several agencies are looking into this incident — including the U.S. Marshals.
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