This story contains references to intimate partner violence, also known as domestic violence.
Lisette Johnson remembers telling her husband she was leaving him in July of 2009.
“He said he was going to kill me if I ever leave him,” she told VPM News. “Your rational mind says, ‘How likely is that to happen? I don’t have broken bones or anything.’”
He shot her several times, with their children around, before killing himself.
Nearly 15 years later, Johnson reflected on the warning signs that may have appeared before her shooting.
“The potential for controlling behavior is more indicative of the potential for lethal violence than physical abuse,” she said.
According to information presented by the Chesterfield County Police Department in April, five of the 13 murders that occurred in the county last year — nearly 40% — were acts of IPV, which is also known as domestic violence or domestic abuse.
Tana Mooney, the domestic violence coordinator for the Chesterfield County Police Department’s Special Victims Unit, said that statistic did not surprise her.
“That unfortunately is a pretty average number that we see here on a yearly basis here in Chesterfield,” she said. “The largest challenge at this point is that there is no [domestic violence] shelter within Chesterfield County.”
Clover Hill Supervisor Jessica Schneider is also a survivor of IPV. She said the lack of a related shelter in a county as large as Chesterfield — which contains 383,876 people according to the U.S. Census Bureau — is a “missed opportunity.”
“We can’t put our residents who are already going through trauma, and we’re pushing them to go somewhere else to get shelter,” she told VPM News.
Schneider said the Board of Supervisors is considering establishing a 16-unit shelter for abuse survivors near the Chesterfield County Courthouse. The county is currently seeking bids from consulting services to shape what that shelter could look like and how it could be run.
“When police get called out on domestic violence calls, they will pull out from their own pocket for women,” Schneider said. “That’s amazing that they do that, but that shouldn’t be what we have to do so that women can be safe from their abusers.”
Chesterfield hasn’t had a dedicated shelter for survivors of IPV since 2007. The YWCA of Richmond handles related abuse calls from most of the county through its hotline, rehousing people in Richmond hotel rooms when possible.
“We need more shelter. We need a place where a family of five can stay,” said CEO Rupa Murthy. She estimated the average stay for a survivor of IPV is six days. Last year, the YWCA received 178 calls from Chesterfield County and provided shelter to 28 people.
James House, in Prince George County, also handles services for the southern part of Chesterfield as well as Petersburg, Hopewell and other areas south of Central Virginia.
That’s not to say the county doesn’t have resources, said Lindsay Cassada, the coordinator of the Chesterfield Domestic and Sexual Violence Resource Center, located in the county’s Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.
“We are one of only six localities that have a government-based domestic violence and sexual violence centers,” she said.
“Chesterfield has a spectacular systems response,” Cassada added, pointing out that the county already has specific prosecutors for domestic abuse cases, the CCPD unit Mooney coordinates and a fatality review team.
Still, Cassada said the lack of a shelter for survivors of IPV is a pressing concern: “What do I see as the biggest need? I think housing is necessary.”
With a patchwork of potentially overlapping resources in Chesterfield between community groups and government agencies, there are bound to be gaps. Mooney said the county should take the lead on filling them.
“Chesterfield needs to establish our own resources,” Mooney said. “We’re the fifth-largest jurisdiction in Virginia, we’re approaching [a population of] 400,000 people.”
Johnson told VPM News that the county’s relative affluence disguises the fact there is a problem that occurs regardless of income.
“Funding for resources was already a challenge,” she said. “There is a concept that Chesterfield isn’t the place where that happens, so we won’t focus funding toward it.”
IPV and DV–related resources in Greater Richmond:
- Virginia Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Hotline: (800) 838-8238
- City of Richmond; most of Chesterfield County: YWCA Richmond, (804) 612-6126
- Southern Chesterfield County; Dinwiddie, Prince George, Surry and Sussex counties; cities of Colonial Heights, Hopewell and Petersburg: James House, (804) 458-2840
- Hanover County (including Ashland): Hanover Safe Place, (804) 612-6126
- Henrico County: Safe Harbor, (804) 500-2755
- Goochland County: GoochlandCares, (804) 980-6267
