We do good work at Domestic Abuse Services Oxford. Our services are needed and we know that the staff, volunteers and Board members recognize how important and valued our work is. Every day our Service Users – the women, children and teens who are impacted by domestic abuse – remind us of why we do what we do.
But yet, we wait, as we’ve waited for years, for decades, for our #MeToo moment.
Maybe, we hope, it will finally come with the sentencing of Dr. Elena Fric’s murderer – her husband. He was convicted of second-degree murder and received a life sentence.
This week at the sentencing hearing, the judge agreed with the recommendation of the prosecution and defense lawyers and ruled that he is eligible to be considered for parole after 14 years – but he can apply after 11½ years due to time he has served while waiting for the justice system to grind along.
Eleven and a half years! For subjecting his family to a decade long reign of terror. For violently murdering his wife and leaving their three young children motherless. For treating her body like garbage by shoving her in a suitcase and throwing the case into a river.
This is wrong and it leaves us all angry and disillusioned. Justice was not done. Research demonstrates that men who murder strangers generally get longer sentences than men who kill their partners. How many more women and children have to be murdered? One more, ten more, a hundred? When is enough, enough?
This Sunday, mothers will be celebrated, treated and gifted with cards and flowers. Elena Fric will get flowers too – her young children will be placing them at her graveside.
Journalists have written good articles about Dr. Fric – below is a link to a story in Macleans which details some of the circumstances of her life and the tragic outcome.
https://www.macleans.ca/society/the-biggest-lessons-from-dr-elana-frics-life-and-tragic-murder/
