ANOTHER STRANGLING: Yale Student Annie Le

Omigosh.  First Rihanna told the cops in February that Chris Brown strangled her until she lost consciousness, and when she came to he was gone !  It was only her screams that brought someone to her car for a call to 911.

Then this week Whitney Houston finally got honest with Oprah re the abuse she put up with from ex-husband Bobby Brown.  She said, "I tried to make myself smaller so he as the man could be bigger."  Oprah said, "You were trying to be the Good Wife."

And now the tragic ending to the story of the disappearance of the bride-to-be, Yale student Annie Le . . . strangled and stuffed into the wall of the very laboratory that she had worked in. 

Rihanna survived because Brown stopped before she was dead.  Whitney is surviving because she got out.

Annie Le hadn't read the two posts here on my blog -- STRANGLING: How to Prevent Your Death and STRANGLING: More Ways to Prevent Your Death.  (Find these posts in the column to the left.)

My first post says it takes a full SEVEN MINUTES TO DIE BY STRANGLING.  The problem is that we lose consciousness well before that time. 

If you're in a relationship where a man -- or a woman -- has laid their hands on your throat, know that THEY WILL DO IT AGAIN.  Read my two posts, memorize them and do what the second post says -- practice your defensive moves with a partner.  You won't have time to try to remember your moves the next time.

And rent the film 'Enough' with Jennifer Lopez starring as the abused wife. 

Start making your plans to get out.  Go to my web site -- www.boomeranglove.com -- and order the tips booklet titled "100 Ways to Leave an Abuser (Safely)".

Be aware that four women are murdered every day in this country, by their intimate partner.  25 percent of these killings are witnessed by their own children. 

SO -- the first two weeks after a person tells theire abuser they're leaving are the most dangerous.  The leaving must be planned carefully.  In fact, my booklet says not to tell your abuser you're leaving at all -- leave when they don't know you're leaving, when they're away from the home.

Have you experienced someone trying to strangle you?  How did you get away?  Are you getting help now?  Share with us.  We care.

Comments

[Lynn Melville]

Good for you, Ellen. The level of domestic violence you experienced frequently escalates to the point of murder. I'm glad you're safe and prosecuting your ex-husband.

[Ellen]

I was abused by my ex husband.. raped, sodomized.. emotionally and physically put down and surpressed... and the day I told him I was leaving... he picked me and the chair I was sitting in up and threw me against a pair of closet doors... brusing my whole left side... he then picked me up... dragged me to the other side of the room pinned me against the wall wrapped his hands about my throat and choked me until I passed out... my children who unfortunately witnessed all of this saved my life... screaming and yelling that he was killing Mommy... I lived... but I'll never forget... We ARE PROSECUTING HIM NOW... AND HE KNOWS THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL... AND HAS RECENTLY, VERBALLY THREATNED MY LIFE AGAIN...