Summer's death.

Abstract

My sister and her husband were murdered in their home in the middle of a sunny fall day in a nice house in a nice neighborhood. My story has raised many important questions and facts. First, I lost two beloved family members. The pain was excruciating. My pain was exacerbated when I learned how my sister and her husband were tortured before their murders. As a violence researcher, I know empirically that there is no way around this pain; however, to climb my way out of this dark posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) abyss, I focus on the positive and am developing policies to prevent batterers from having free reign in communities. Second, due to the violence, I experienced extreme feelings of shock, fear, and helplessness because somebody wanted my sister and her husband dead. In fact, the killer wanted them more than dead. Each of their bodies had multiple injuries pre, peri, and post-mortem, and each of their bodies was posed to torment whomever found them. The killer pulled Michael’s pants and underwear down and sexually assaulted him, and Terri was posed in a grotesque manner in the pond with an altar built on her back. Their deaths were without the honor or peace becoming of a state trooper or an environmental investigator. Michael and Terri dedicated their lives to advocacy for the vulnerable and the environment. It is with great hope that you, the reader, share the story of Terri and Michael Greene. Domestic violence affects all of us, even those who do not live in violent homes. We are still waiting for the necessary social change that frames domestic violence as a human rights violation to prevent Terri and Michael’s fate from occurring to others. Most importantly, Terri and Michael Greene were victims of domestic violence. Their murders were preventable, and had anybody at any point over the last 25 years upheld the laws passed by Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) I, II, and III and held the perpetrator accountable for the psychological, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of dozens of women and children, Terri and Mike would be alive. Deemed a