Two Edmonton murders highlight Alberta’s high rate of domestic violence

 On September 24th, 27-year-old Tye Christopher Kaye was found stabbed to death inside his apartment in south Edmonton. Police later charged his wife, 26-year-old Amanda McInnes with second-degree murder.

On October 4th, Charissa Kozakewich was found dead in her home in the Edmonton community of Summerside. She was 39-years-old. Edward Fountain, whose Facebook page described him as “in a relationship” with Kozakewich, was charged with her murder.

Alberta has one of the highest rates of domestic abuse in the country. In fact, when it comes to domestic homicides, the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters (ACWS) says Alberta has the highest rate in all of Canada. ACWS states from 2000 to 2006 in Alberta, more than 170 homicides were identified as domestic violence related.

Between 2010 and 2011, Edmonton alone recorded six domestic homicides.

“My understanding is that there are three this year that would be domestic violence homicides,” says Mark Fussell, a detective with Edmonton Police Service’s Domestic Offender Crimes Section.

He says the number of calls related to domestic violence went up between 2010 and 2012. Between January and August in 2010, police received about 4,700 calls. For the same time period in 2011, they received about 4,100 calls. In 2012, that number has jumped to around 5,300.

“I certainly agree there’s a very high number, and it’s disappointing to see that many calls. Patrol members are going back time and time again to deal with family violence,” says Fussell.

“These aren’t like a lot of other investigations,” he adds. “These are family situations. There are a lot of dynamics, not only between the couple, there may be financial issues, and there may be issues with children.”

Still, Fussell points out an increase in the number of calls reporting domestic violence can indicate victims are no longer suffering in silence.

“If they are calling, that’s good for us. They’re starting to make those steps.”

The province has asked the Ministry of Human Services to look at creating a committee that would examine each domestic violence death in Alberta.

“There are all these ways that they’re intimidating their partners and that they’re keeping this continuous control of their partners but nobody is actually able to hold them responsible,” said Pam Schellenberger, Counselling Centre Manager with the YWCA, in an interview with Global News.

While she believes domestic violence doesn’t always lead to death, she says there’s often a pattern of behaviour that leads to this tragic end. Jean Dunbar, who manages a shelter in Calgary, agrees this kind of review would be incredibly telling.

“It is the one piece out of the puzzle that we are sadly lacking,” she says, “and it’s the piece to me that will give us the most information to be able to prevent domestic homicides.”

Detective Fussell says there are a number of factors that would help reduce the number of domestic homicides, and domestic violence in general.

“Ultimately, there are a lot of different parts of society that we need to rely on to be the overall response to domestic violence,” he says.

“We need the faith communities on board, the women’s shelters, support centres like the Today Centre. It’s only with all of those supports that potentially you can start to move some of these victims beyond.”

As members of these organizations continue to help victims of violence move forward, law-enforcement officials are also hoping to progress past these troubling statistics.

“We used to, probably wrongly, consider it more of a family matter, society did, and police included,” says Fussell.

“You may get issues within certain faith communities or support communities, you might have societal attitudes or family attitudes around domestic violence where some of these people have grown up with it so they perceive it as normal or acceptable,” he adds. “The reality is, it’s criminal.”

If you need to speak with someone at a shelter near you, call the ACWS toll free at 1-866-331-3933. More information is available on its website.

If you are in immediate danger, call 911.