On the Monday after a 41-year-old woman was found dead in her home, Cohoes Police Chief Todd Waldin, said the incident was out of the norm, adding that it took place in a quiet part of the city.
“There are a lot of things about the case that are unusual,” Waldin said.
But, tragically, the case may be more common than anyone would like to think.
At the time of this airing, a manhunt remains active in Northern New York, as members of law enforcement search for 53-year-old Anthony Bechand, suspected of stabbing his girlfriend, Amanda Rodriguez, at their shared home Saturday, before fleeing to the Adirondacks. An autopsy determined Rodriguez died by homicide.
While it’s too soon to know exactly what happened, we do know that domestic violence is all too common – and that it often defies simple stereotypes. Women of color experience higher rates of violence at the hands of a domestic partner. But, as Linda MacFarlane, the CEO of Equinox, which is Albany County’s primary provider of services for victims of domestic violence, says, domestic violence cases cut across socioeconomic status.
“It can happen everywhere. And, actually, I think the current statistic is every day there are more than three women killed by an intimate partner in the U.S. due to domestic violence,” MacFarlane said.
Domestic Violence can and does happen everywhere and in any neighborhood. It happens inside apartments, on quiet stretches of the leafy suburbs and out in rural expanses. Case in point, while the Cohoes incident and ensuing manhunt gripped our region this week, a case in a close-knit York County, Pennsylvania, community made national headlines, as three responding officers were killed.
In reporting on the case, The New York Times noted that studies show domestic violence-related calls lead to some of the most dangerous situations for members of law enforcement, citing a federal report from 2017 that found such calls led to more officer deaths than calls of any other sort.
Clearly, the devastation wrought by domestic violence reaches far and wide.
And, as MacFarlane explains, the abuse takes on many forms.
“Domestic violence can be physical, it can be sexual, it can be intimidation. It's just not acceptable to treat people like that.”
It’s incumbent, then, on all of us to be on the lookout and report what we see.
Thankfully, MacFarlane says, the stigma has come down in recent years, in part, because of increased awareness. And that’s led to more people seeking the kinds of services – counseling, outreach, mental health care – offered by entities like Equinox.
MacFarlane also credits the state’s STRIVE Initiative for making a difference in New York. In June, Governor Kathy Hochul announced more than $20 million had been awarded as part of the program to support domestic-violence response partnerships between law enforcement agencies and community organizations. In Albany, Equinox has teamed up with entities like the district attorney’s office and the Albany Police Department to respond to incidents in real time, helping to keep people safe and leading to greater accountability.
Still, with at least three American women dying every day, there’s obviously more work to be done.
Putting the issue out in the open is critical, MacFarlane says. October presents an important opportunity when we recognize Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
But so, too, do tragedies like those in Cohoes and Pennsylvania.
“Reporting these types of incidents in the news is important because it happens. It happens so often,” MacFarlane says. “The current statistic is one in four women are victims of domestic violence. For men, it's about one in seven. But for women, it's one in four, which is a staggeringly high number. So having the conversations, having it reported in the news, bringing awareness to the situation, is critically important.”
Indeed, if one in four women is a victim – if you can conceivably walk four homes down your block and find a family dealing with domestic violence and then walk down just four more houses and find another, that’s a serious concern. That’s a problem that’s far too widespread and in urgent need of solutions. So, as a manhunt continues following last week’s violent homicide in Albany County, it’s time we all work together in the search.
